Out-Smasher
by NarayanK
Summary: Prior to his retirement, a quiet boxer finds himself training with Doc Louis for a new and different tournament. Surrounded by a surreal variety of fighters and armed only with his boxing prowess, Little Mac, champion of the World Video Boxing Association, fights a whole new series of battles. He did not sign up for consistently fighting over the last pizza, though...
1. Little Mac!

_One two three._

_One two three._

_One two._

_One two._

_Move out._

_Move in._

_Dodge._

_Punch._

A figure clad in a pink hooded jumpsuit let his feet dance by themselves on the floor, his two green boxing gloves endlessly attacking a large punching bag. He lived his life boxing. The feeling of victory, and the recognition as a champion made it all worth it for him.

_Left jab._

_Sidestep._

_Quick shoeshine combination._

_Sidestep._

_One two three._

_Repeat._

He had once lost the title as a champion, and that had truly motivated him to reclaim the title. And so he did, after a grueling effort involving a series of training sessions that toughened him up. The day he became champion once more after losing felt great. Awesome, even.

_Jab._

_Jab._

_Jab jab jab._

_Two hooks._

_Final set of jabs and hooks._

He was a man who bested the odds of having a short height, small frame, and a face that would not have struck fear in other boxers had he not trained hard enough to become the world-class champion.

_Star Punch._

The hooded man delivered a powerful uppercut on the punching bag he had been beating down relentlessly, causing the thing to get smashed off. With the bag lying down on the ground, the boxer took a moment to catch his breath.

A new tournament had caught Little Mac's interest.

Something about this particular tournament was... interesting. First things first, it did not seem to be an official tournament held on planet Earth, but rather, in a more "isolated" location. Whether it was just an invitation to an underground boxing tournament, Mac did not know of. Doc Louis, however, seemed to know a bit about the tournament.

That was where the second unusual circumstance came into place. The tournament was not a boxing tournament; it was a fighting tournament.

Little Mac was no ordinary boxer, but that did not mean that he was the most extraordinary human being in the world. Aiming to be the best was one thing, but being the best was a completely different story. Mac certainly wanted to be recognized as a great boxer who had held an extremely long career before retiring with a bang, but nearly right after he had quit, a different kind of battle invited him to join an undefined brawl.

Needless to say, he was no one to say the entire situation was not interesting. And despite claiming that his boxing career should have come to an end, the boxer wondered what would happen if his top-notch boxing abilities were placed next to the best of other kinds of fighters. Who was he to decline such an interesting turn of events?

Though, he did find it odd that the tournament apparently used a "mock-up version" of him to assist the fighters, which he, even now, could not comprehend fully. Mac did not want to imagine seeing a clone of himself confusing him by utilizing the same exact moves he was using. Then again, Mac knew himself best; perhaps he could defeat a mere copy of himself, even if he could not defeat anyone else.

Mac walked out of the small, dark gym, picking up a chocolate bar lying on a nearby bench on his way.

* * *

><p>"Remember, son; today's a real big day, ya hear me? You're gonna be goin' places. Lots of places!"<p>

Mac nodded, sitting with his hoodie over his head. New York seemed to fly by him, for Mac could not remember taking one last look at the Statue of Liberty.

Doc Louis was both Mac's best friend and mentor. He never seemed to change: he still boasted a fair amount of chubbiness, a red athletic jacket, blue training pants, and a humorous face. The boxer had no problems with the Doc not not seeming to change.

Much to his surprise, Mac was apparently going to the tournament by car. He initially thought that he would take a plane, but apparently, the location of the tournament was nearby. Doc Louis had been going over and over about how the tournament was so different, and that made Mac feel tenser and tenser as each second passed by. Still, he had no intentions on backing off. Whatever the tournament was, he would see to it that it fit his interests and make good use of his judgment.

Perhaps the tournament was not too much of a big deal. Maybe it would take just a few weeks, or maybe even just one week. Maybe even one day, if everyone felt like getting knocked out by a single contestant. He just hoped that whatever the competition was, it would not be too out-of-hand.

Mac did have the guilty pleasure of feeling excited about beating down those who unfairly attempt to win.

* * *

><p>Soon, Mac found himself standing at a cliff nearby an ocean. The orange of the sunset painted the world with its bright colors. It took over approximately one hour to arrive.<p>

"You seem all tensed up, son! Don't worry; this Doc right here looked just like you did when I first saw this thing myself."

"..."

Doc Louis laughed at Mac's nervous look as the two stood before what appeared to be a...

...portal.

A portal.

A **portal**.

Little Mac felt his eyes twitch out of sheer amazement and confusion. If smacking his own face did not wake him up, then bashing his head onto the ground would have seemed like a great alternative for the shocked boxer.

His time at the tournament had not even begun, and he was being overwhelmed. Meanwhile, Doc Louis simply looked at the portal, happily eating a chocolate bar before commenting,

"We ain't seeing this in the _WVBA_, Mac. It ain't no joke, I can tell!"

The swirling hole in front of Little Mac think one thing.

This was way too crazy to be a joke.

* * *

><p><strong>Out-Smasher<strong>

* * *

><p>.<p> 


	2. The Glove That Said Hello

It turned out that the tournament WAS more than just "strange."

Floating before Little Mac was a large portal- yes, a portal out of all things- to somewhere the boxer had not gone to before. The boxer initially wondered if all of this was just a flashy way of saying "hello" from some fancy boxing association, only to be met with the grim truth when Doc Louis bluntly stated,

"Mac baby; now you're contesting with ALIENS!... Pfft! Just kidding, son. Well, there might be a few aliens, but some of them are peeps! Or, so I've heard."

It was at that moment that Little Mac finally lost it, but still, he was quick to keep his cool. Why did Doc just laugh at some extraterrestrial wormhole floating in front of him? Was he that much of an awesome sportsman, or did he just see it enough while Mac was not looking?

The boxer quickly concluded that it was the chocolate bar his mentor happily devoured. There must have been some sort of antidote within the chocolate that automatically made people feel completely used to extraterrestrial wormholes. Staggering a little, Mac put on his boxing gloves before nudging Doc with one of them. Doc Louis noticed the somewhat hungry look Mac gave to his chocolate bar.

"Good idea, Mac baby!" The ex-heavyweight champion of the WVBA laughed, taking out a spare chocolate bar just for his student. "I know it's a lot to take in, but... think about it, Mac! This ol' fool right here actually had the chance to go in 'n out of this cool thing!"

If Mac did not give Doc Louis enough respect beforehand, now seemed like a great moment to do so. Giving the Doc an incredulous look, Mac watched his teacher walk straight toward the wormhole. "It ain't that bad," Doc might say, but still, Mac had second thoughts about the entire ordeal.

...Then again, he faced Sandman! Over and over again! And he beat him down a lot during his Last Stand, and that alone was a massively impressive achievement!

For some reason, Mac felt like he was intentionally diverting his attention from the very idea of getting killed by the stupid wormhole floating in front of him. It did seem that the desperate strategy was working, however, as the lightweight boxer reluctantly began to walk toward the portal. In mere seconds, he had devoured the chocolate bar.

Right after Doc Louis entered the frightening thing, the boxer stopped in his tracks, staring at the extraterrestrial entity. There was the possibility of not coming back... but he had already made a big enough name for himself in the world. And since he was no superhero of any kind, he had little to worry about the world. If what Mac thought of the portal was, indeed, absolutely correct, then this might have been the last time he would ever see his home planet.

Little Mac turned back, a solemn look now over his face. He realized how far he had come, from being a small, frail man who sought out recognition of beating the odds of weight and height to a champion who no longer had anything to lose.

Perhaps his past self's motivation never changed, after all.

With a now determined look, Mac turned to the portal, which floated right in front of him. He took a deep breath, finally finding the spirit to calm down, before walking straight into the wormhole. What lied beyond it, he did not know, and soon, he would discover just what kind of tournament he would be in.

Darkness enveloped the lightweight boxer.

The darkness felt unnervingly serene. Mac felt his heart beat at a less rapid rate, and he no longer took audible breaths to keep himself motivated. Only a bright light remained floating on the other side of the room of darkness. Still in awe by his new surroundings, Mac took his time to look around the place as he walked toward the light. He occasionally spun around in an attempt to calculate just how large the room was.

Right before he entered the light, however, he felt an unnatural chill run down his spine. Mac jerked his head behind him, his eyes wide in alarm, as he put up a defensive stance.

Nothing awaited him on the other side of the dark, dark ring.

Maybe he was just overthinking things...

Putting down his boxing stance, Mac straightened up before turning to the light. He heard... voices. They belonged to multiple people, and one of them clearly belonged to Doc Louis. He needed to make a good first impression if he wanted to punch out with a great start. The boxer took a deep breath, closing his eyes.

Two seconds passed, and Little Mac opened his eyes, walking straight into the light.

The lightweight boxer found himself walking into a very vast area. His feet touched what appeared to be a floating platform, and his surroundings were consisted of nothing but white, gray, and a tinge of sky-blue. Everything felt unnatural.

What disturbed him most was the fact that he could not see any ceiling, wall, or floor. He did not want to imagine what would happen if one were to fall off the platform. Fortunately, there seemed to be glass walls encasing the white platform.

"You look like you saw a ghost, son!" Doc Louis joked, causing Little Mac to wake up from his own little world. The lightweight boxer turned to Doc Louis, who was accompanied by... a floating hand.

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

"...!"

Mac froze, simply staring at the... hand. Actually, it seemed to be a floating _glove_, which did not make things any more logical for Mac. The right hand remained still for a few seconds before waving at the boxer.

"Hello," the glove said.

Hello, the glove said.

Hello.

_The glove_

_said Hello._

It did not even bother to use sign languages to communicate. Heck, the glove seemed completely naturally with talking like a person. The way it spoke was so natural, it bothered Mac to no end. Did it have a mouth inside the glove?

"No," Mac wanted to tell himself. "Don't obliterate your common sense, Mac."

Even so... the glove just bothered him to death.

"Pardon my appearance, boxer," the white glove said with certain grace. "I am the one who has invited you to join my universal tournament. You may refer to me as _Master Hand_."

The boxer nodded, standing as far as he could from the glove.

"...Uh," Doc Louis interjected with a knowing grin, "Mac ain't much of a talker, so you won't have to worry about stuff like that."

"I see," Master Hand responded, as if the glove understood Mac's general silence. "Very well, then."

The hand directed its attention towards Doc Louis, allowing Mac to stop stiffening his shoulders for a while.

"Mr. Louis," the hand asked curiously, "you stated that _Little Mac _is one of the best boxers in your world, correct? Would you mind if I may have a demonstration of some of his abilities?"

Doc Louis laughed with a wide grin, pointing at Little Mac with a thumb as he boasted, "Well, as long as we can get a sandbag, I think Mac baby could show you a trick or two. But a fair warning for you, Master Hand; he just might do better than you'd expect!"

The glove remained still for a while before giving a thumbs-up to the Doc. It seemed that the glove was more used to social conversations than Mac had ever imagined, as it seemed to develop some sort of friendly relationship with his mentor.

Master Hand snapped his(?) fingers, causing a bright light to briefly flash at the center of the platform. There, a sandbag with... cuddly eyes remained still.

Mac looked up at Doc Louis, who gave him a faithful smile and an encouraging thumbs-up, while Master Hand proceeded to request of the boxer to show his skills.

"I would like to see some of your punches, Mac."

The lightweight boxer nodded, turning to the sandbag with cuddly eyes. No more would he just sit around and do nothing but get surprised at everything. It was time to accept things as they were, and in a world like this, that seemed like the best option to go with. Raising his boxing gloves, Little Mac glared at the sandbag, which stared back with a lack of emotion.

Mac suddenly leapt toward the sandbag, delivering an airborne haymaker with an immense amount of power. Master Hand remained still in the air, not showing any signs of surprise or disappointment. Gritting his teeth and firmly stabilizing his body's framework, Mac proceeded to send out a rapid flurry of punches at the sandbag with blinding speed.

Through speed and strategy, he prevails. Through power and calmness, he conquers. That was how he became a boxing champion.

After the flurry of punches sent at the sandbag, Mac delivered a light uppercut at the object, sending it slightly up in the air. At this point, however, Mac did not know what to do. He had faced plenty of big opponents who only knew how to fall, not how to fly. With this in mind, Mac quickly thought up of a random attack he could use to complete the chain of attacks.

Taking a step forward, Mac lifted his body off of the ground, spiraling upwards at a short height, before smashing the sandbag with a powerful, airborne uppercut. The lightweight boxer fell on his back due to his inexperience with the move he just made up.

It took Little Mac a few seconds to realize that the Master Hand floated over to him.

"That... was far more than I expected, Mister Mac," the hand admitted with a tone of delightful surprise behind its voice. "The Mac trophy we had been using during your World Circuit career cannot compare to what you are right now."

Little Mac blinked, looking at Doc Louis before at the hand again. It seemed that the Doc had explained quite a lot to the white glove.

The Master Hand let out its pointer finger at the boxer, allowing Mac to grab it to pull himself up. With an impressed tone, the Master Hand told Doc Louis,

"I am pleased to tell you that this boxer... just might fit right in with the other fighters."

* * *

><p>Portals were apparently a thing in the strange world.<p>

It felt as if Little Mac flew past a dozen portals just to get to the shelter he would reside in for the time being. The man did not have the chance to check out all of the environments within each portal, but he preferred not to get overwhelmed by his environments yet. And according to Master Hand, the place he would be residing in would already be a handful to have concern over, anyway.

Little Mac eventually found himself walking down a brick road, which led to a gigantic mansion of some sort. Perhaps he had to live inside of it?

"This will be where you reside for as long as you contend in the tournaments."

"..."

Of course.

As Mac approached the mansion, however, a sudden shout echoed out of the mansion.

"**FAAAAAAAAAALCOOOOOOOOOOOON...**

_**PUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNCH!**_"

Suddenly, one of the windows shattered, and a large figure flew out of the open hole like a missile. Soon, Mac would learn that a speed racer was the one who just punched a legendary evil being out of a mansion because of a "your mom" joke.

"..."

"..."

"...That ain't lookin' good."

Little Mac somehow felt the urge to respond "No sh-t, Doc," but decided to remain positive and mentally prepare himself for what was about to come...

* * *

><p><span><strong>Author's<strong>** Notes**

**Fun Fact: Out-Smasher is a hybrid play on the words "outsider," "out-boxer," and, of course, "smash."**

**To clarify Little Mac's silence, most of his entire personality is based off of "Punch-Out! (Arcade/NES)" and "Punch-Out! (Wii)", both of which depicts Little Mac as a man with few words, but not none. I intentionally ignored "Super Punch-Out!," where the player talks much more frequently, because... Little Mac actually doesn't exist in it.**

**Thank you to my early reviewers! I might have not been able to explain those little details if I wasn't reminded about them.**


	3. Wandering Around

_**"PUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNCH!"**_

Little Mac saw one of the windows shattering, revealing a large figure flying out of the now open window.

"..."

"..."

"...Well, that ain't good."

Master Hand seemed to clench himself(?) into a balled fist before calming down. With a slightly disappointed tone, the hand muttered, "I should have expected something like this to happen."

Little Mac thought to himself, _Then what am I not supposed to expect?_

With the flick of a finger, Master Hand brought back the figure that just flew out of the window back into the mansion, and the fragments of the window slowly picked themselves up, floating toward where they once remained assembled together.

"Anyway," the glove said, turning to Little Mac with a thumb up, "you'll be living here. Don't worry! I'll try to keep you ali- er, comfortable."

With a somewhat shaky nod, the lightweight boxer nodded. For some reason, he felt much more comfortable with the hand now. Maybe it was because of the fact that someone just punched a random person out of the place he would be staying at.

The mansion itself was surprisingly great. Some ornaments decorated some of the walls, with pictures of the tournament hung on the walls. As the three went deeper into the mansion, however, the place slowly began to look more like a regular house. It felt strange, but Mac himself liked the fact that not everything looked fancy. He never was one to walk around flaunting wealth.

There was a disturbingly quiet atmosphere within the mansion at the moment.

As he followed the Master Hand, however, he noticed that a person other than Doc Louis had finally appeared. The blonde woman wore a dark-blue, hoodless jumpsuit, running past the group of three. Master Hand seemed to recognize her, though he did not make any clear notions of it. After walking down flights of stairs, and a series of "wows" directed at the well-designed mansion by a chocolate-eating Doc Louis, Little Mac found himself standing in front of a door.

Somehow... the entrance of what just might be a dormitory seemed familiar. It was as if whoever designed the entrance knew about Little Mac and the gym he trained in ever-so-frequently.

"Mister Mac," Master Hand spoke, startling the young boxer, "unfortunately, we were unable to complete the entrance of your dormitory. On the brighter side, the dormitory itself is finished."

Little Mac nodded, his hoodie still over his head. He liked wearing the hood for some reason.

With Master Hand's information in mind, Little Mac opened the unlocked door, pushing it open with a boxing glove.

Behind the door was a comfy-looking room. In fact, the entire dormitory did not seem like... a dorm at all. It actually looked like the interior of a big house. Marble walls, wooden floors, and a certainly high ceiling. This did not look hugely different from his actual house; the only clear difference Mac was able to spot was the size of the room.

"Feel free to make yourself home, Mister Mac," Master Hand urged playfully. "Doc Louis and I have set a schedule for your tryouts. There, we will be able to clearly calculate your strength among the fighters. Do not consider it as a test, however, as I am already planning on permitting you to join the tournament."

Little Mac felt puzzled, which Master Hand seemed to catch onto by just looking at the boxer's face.

"Simply put," the glove stated with a somewhat prideful tone, "a friend of mine watched some of your matches. From the Minor Circuit to the World Circuit, he told me some of your tales, though I initially did not believe him because he's sort of... crazy."

"Y' mean that Crazy Hand fun stuff?" Doc Louis asked, barely able to suppress a fit of laughter. "'Ey, I still remember how he slapped you, Master Hand!"

The glove let out a sigh of disgust, remembering how Crazy Hand pimpslapped him to make a good impression when Doc Louis first encountered them.

Meanwhile, Little Mac proceeded to look around the room. Everything did not seem as bad as he thought it would be. Whoever worked on the dormitory certainly captured the feeling of his home quite well. There was even a sandbag placed at the corner of the ro-

"..."

"...Hm? Son, what's wrong?"

The lightweight boxer felt one of his eyes twitch as he pointed at the sandbag. This one... had googly eyes.

Just how the heck did the sandbag he attacked appear in his room?

"Oops," Master Hand muttered before he quickly zoomed past Mac, picking the sandbag up before putting it outside of the dormitory. Returning to the Doc and the boxer, he explained, "I originally put that there in case he would want a copy of Sandbag, but it appears that our boxer does not like him all that much."

Mac nodded. There was no need to lie on that part; he would probably Star Punch himself if he saw the Sandbag blink.

"Anyway," the Master Hand said as he began to float out of the dormitory, "I will be leaving with Mr. Louis to discuss some things about your new career here, Mac. Would you mind any visitors?"

At this, Little Mac tilted his head in confusion. The glove chuckled before explaining once more,

"There may be some fighters that would like to meet you firsthand. Your name is not an all-too foreign one, after all."

The boxer nodded, though he quickly regretted doing so. He realized that he would have to put up with people that could punch others through windows, and possibly create an indoor brawl for no justified reason. Right before he could shake his head, however, Doc Louis shouted heartily,

"That's the spirit! Good thinking, Mac."

...And now, he really could not decline the offer. With a sigh, Mac watched the glove and his mentor move out of the basement.

* * *

><p>Knock knock.<p>

"...?"

Little Mac looked up from the carpet he had been staring at for so long, getting up from a leather sofa. Walking up to the door, Mac was about to open it when he realized that it had been unlocked all this time.

He decided to pretend that he was unlocking the door before actually opening it.

Behind the door stood a somewhat peachy lady. Her pink, lacy dress complimented quite well with her bright blonde hair, and the tiara resting on her head confused Little Mac. He concluded that she was just a rich lady who just wanted to meet a newcomer.

With a small and curious smile, the lady bowed slightly, greeting him with a moderately high-pitched "Hello!"

Little Mac nodded.

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

"...Umm... my name is Peach Toadstool!" The woman said, awkwardly attempting to drive a conversation to somewhere. She politely let out a hand for a handshake.

Now, Little Mac did not know that this person was the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. In fact, he had no idea that there were any princesses at all in the world he was in. If there were any princesses that really existed, they all would probably be at some random castle, or maybe fighting evil alongside heroes. Little Mac never lived a life of consistently fighting supernatural forces, despite the fact that his victories themselves seemed supernatural.

So, Little Mac, with his boxing gloves on, nearly whammed a hand onto the woman's, shaking her hand as firmly as possible. Much to his dismay, however, the lady looked hurt by the exchange, as she cringed just by the feeling of her fingers being pressed far too tightly against each other.

"Ow...!"

He forgot that boxing gloves could provide an iron death grip under the wrong circumstances. Luckily, the boxer was quick to react, as he literally jerked his hand back. Unfortunately for him, Peach still tried her best to keep shaking the death grip, only to get pulled towards him.

Little Mac wondered what he should do. There was a pretty woman being pulled towards him. His first option was to punch her away and state (while apologizing) that it was all because of his boxing career, though that might sound like an insult directed towards Doc Louis. His second option was to dodge sideways and attempt to grab her away from a faceplant on the wooden floor, though Little Mac never really had experience in grabbing as much as he did in punching.

His final option was to just use himself as a cushion, but that too sounded unpleasant. Fate seemed to hate him, for he immediately fell backward on the ground.

There were good news and bad news for the lightweight boxer.

Now, there was a pretty person resting on his chest. Mac did not know whether to feel embarrassed or proud of himself, though he decided that the former was the correct reaction. She felt warm and cozy like a... peach. Or something.

Then there was the fact that he saw someone running out of the basement right after he opened his eyes.

...He decided not to pay too much attention to that, however, as the delicate lady groggily woke up. As she shook her head lazily, Little Mac took this as a chance to get up, softly push the woman away from him, and smash his face against the ground.

Just what was he doing on his first day in a world he had no experience living in?

"Ah! Are you okay?" Peach asked.

Mac remained in the fetal position, simply shaking his head with his face flat on the ground. The rich lady lightly grabbed Mac's head, pulling him out of the little faceplant he did. Now there was an imprint of Little Mac's face randomly smashed into the wooden floor.

"So what's your name, mister?" The rich lady asked nicely, her smile returning.

"..."

...

...

...

...

"...Mac."

"Oh! It is an honor to meet you, Sir Mac!"

"Just Mac."

"Huh?"

Peach blinked at the man in the pink jumpsuit, who proceeded to pull his hoodie back over his head. For the first time in a long time, however, he smiled without feeling like he was forced to do so.

"I see," Peach said, nodding twice to herself. "Then let me rephrase my greeting! It is an honor to meet you, Mac!"

Mac nodded.

Peach was a nice person.

* * *

><p>Peach definitely was a nice person.<p>

Before she left off in a hurry to somewhere, the rich lady had given him a basket of sweets and... mushrooms. While the mushrooms confused Mac a little, he presumed that it was some sort of cultural thing. But then again, he heard of Americans being stereotyped as people who carried around baskets of hamburgers and french fries.

Mac did feel like eating a burger, however. Smiling at the welcome gift he received from the nice lady, he put the basket at the living room before leaving his dormitory.

Doc Louis and Master Hand never mentioned anything about Mac leaving the dormitory, but at this point, Little Mac knew not to go overboard with wandering around the new world he was in. And the mansion he now lived in had a fair amount of mysteries that still needed to be looked into. Perhaps Mac would be lucky enough to not get punched out of a window while he was at it.

The boxer left the basement, standing still in the lobby that connected all of the dormitories together. He smelled something good coming from what appeared to be a cafeteria. Making sure that his hoodie was still over his head, the lightweight champion headed straight towards the cafeteria.

Sporting rather a simple look, the cafeteria had no one but robots in it. Mac picked up a tray and a plate, placing it on a small platform before watching a robot slowly place food on the plate.

Burgers.

Perfect.

Mac felt really hungry, even after consuming a fair amount of chocolate bars. More than that, he wanted to taste something he was familiar with first before he began eating possibly foreign foods. The boxer picked his tray up off of the platform, causing it a green light to briefly blip out of it.

After the light shined, Mac placed the tray on the platform again. He saw the robot place yet another burger on the plate.

He repeated this until he had five hamburgers sitting on his plate. Carrying a tray full of burgers (and some fries), Mac quickly snatched a small pack of ketchup, proceeding to consume his food on a random table.

Unbeknownst to him, he was being watched.

Oblivious to his surroundings, Mac first decided that eating was a good priority for his hungry condition. He ate a burger, some fries, another burger, then another burger, until he was left with two burgers and some fries. He then realized that he had not drank any kinds of liquid during the meal, so he quickly got up and went over to a drink stall. Soon, he returned with a coke. With his drink in hand, Little Mac proceeded to continue his feast.

_"Whoa," one of the voices commented outside of the cafeteria's entrance, "he eats a LOT."_

_"Someone who finally eats more than your mom," stated another voice. Soon, a swarm of voices joined the conversation._

_"If the Captain was here, you'd be tasting a healthy Falcon Punch again."_

_"Say what...?!"_

_"I think he must've been-a really hungry! Look at all the food he's-a eating."_

_"H-He might eat m-more than Bowser, Mario!"_

_"At least he took his gloves off. It would've been freaky to see a dude with boxing gloves eat burgers..."_

_"By the way, Link just beat down Meta Knight."_

_"Return of the classic high-tiers?"_

_"Hey, where did the Ice Climbers go?"_

_"In your mom's house."_

_"For crying out loud, Ganon..."_

Little Mac continued to eat, not knowing that there was a huge swarm of fighters right outside of the cafeteria. After eating half of his fourth burger, he noticed that someone other than him had finally entered the cafeteria.

It was Peach again!

When the lady saw him sitting by a table, she waved lightly before heading towards his direction. Mac stood up from the table, mimicking Peach's polite bow before sitting back down. He felt a little better after he accidentally pulled Peach down.

_"Hey... does she know about him?" One of the voices pointed out._

_"I dunno."_

_"How am I supposed to know?"_

_"I fight for my friends."_

_"Shut up, Nike."_

_"It's Ike."_

_"Ikea, shut up for a second."_

_"You shut up."_

_"No you."_

_"Ganondorf, make a your mom joke."_

_"Fool. I make jokes when I feel like it. Go die in Din's fire."_

_"Dang it, Ganondork!"_

_"...What did you just call me?"_

As Peach sat down, Little Mac could not help but notice that something about her felt really off. He did not notice earlier, but the lady seemed a little too polite, even for a rich lady. And the way she smiled at him just made him smile back. Perhaps this was the "happy virus" effect that only a few people were able to host?

"There was Smash battle not too long ago!"

At this, Little Mac jerked his head up, all of his attention directed towards the woman in front of him. Noticing that the news of a battle caught his attention, Peach proceeded to explain further,

"There are a lot of friendly matches, you see. Don't worry! If you're a part of the tournament, I don't think you're missing out on too much. The matches always play on the television channels, so feel free to take a look once in a while!"

Nodding, the boxer relaxed his shoulders. Still, his curiosity teetered over to the idea of a battle against someone who did not just box. He still needed to get the hang of what the tournament was like first, and Doc Louis seemed intent on doing just that for Mac.

Now that he thought about it, the woman in front of him had been spending a fair amount of time within the mansion all by herself. The lightweight champion realized that the peachy woman in front of him was probably a contender in the strange series of battles known as the "Super Smash Brothers" tourneys.

The SSB Tourneys were, according to some of the spare magazines he found back at his dormitory, tournaments that consistently took place to entertain a crowd that loved excitement, tension, drama, and turnovers. It actually sounded very similar to what his career back at the WVBA sounded like: a wild crowd, wild opponents, and a wild world of boxing in general. The only person that was not wild, from what he remembered, was a particular referee who he saw very frequently. Something about the referee always reminded Mac in many boxing matches that he himself did not live an ordinary life.

Little Mac blinked, noticing that he had actually gone silent for a fairly long time. He looked down at his food. There was one burger and several fries left.

The boxer looked up at Peach, then at the food.

He consumed the burger in a matter of seconds.

"Wow!" Peach exclaimed, laughing at the bizarrely fast consumption of the food. "Maybe you'd get along with Kirby! He likes to eat a lot, too."

For some reason, the name "Kirby" only brought up another boxer Mac knew of.

After he ate everything on his plate, Mac felt laziness take over.

Laziness... That was definitely not a good sign.

Doc Louis always told Mac to make up for laziness with the soaring inspiration to become the number one boxer, but in this case, Mac would need to become number one in the tournament somehow. He felt that he would be able to compete in some way, but at the same time, seeing someone punch a dude out of a window with immense power made his confidence fall a little. Despite his fairly quiet demeanor, Mac had an attitude; that very attitude made him eager and bright enough to overcome his weaknesses.

And so, Mac stood up from the table, startling the princess. He never was one to have the same mindset as others, as he did not spend much time training on his social skills. If there was one redeeming feature for his social awkwardness, it would be the toothy grin he always let out whenever he won a boxing match. That was practically it.

"..."

Little Mac turned to Peach, who simply stared at him, still startled by how abruptly he stood up. The boxer picked up his boxing gloves, turned back to Peach, and wore the gloves quickly. With the gloves snugly covering his hands, Mac lightly smacked the gloves against each other two times before pointing outside of the cafeteria with a grin. His facial expressions made him look as if he did not know where to go at all.

"Oh! I see," Peach said in realization. "If you turn to your left outside of the cafeteria, then the gym should be available."

Mac nodded before walking away.

"Have fun!"

The lightweight champion stopped, turned around, and waved at the pretty woman with one of his gloves. He then turned back before he started walking again.

As Little Mac approached the exit of the cafeteria, however, he noticed several whispers right outside of the place. Curious as to who the whispers belonged to, Mac walked out of the cafeteria, looking in the direction of the whispers.

Nothing was there. The whispers had also vanished for some reason.

The boxer looked around, making sure that there weren't any spidermen waiting to attack him from the ceiling, before turning to his left. He then jogged down a large, spacious hallway.

_"...One more, Wario. One more wedgie, and I'll-"_

_"Shat ahp, Ikea."_


	4. You're A Wizard, Mac Baby

Little Mac accidentally destroyed a punching bag after five thousand consecutive strikes.

The term "five thousand" was no exaggeration, for there were techniques in such excessively long training sessions that allowed him to continuously train himself without taking a break. He did not know just what the punching bag was made of, but it lasted several hundred more strikes than the thick sandbags he used.

The boxer sighed. He needed to get better. He needed to get a target that would not break at all.

He stared at the punching bag lying down on the ground, knocked straight off of the stand. Some weird gel oozed out of the bag. The lightweight champion remembered a time where he and Doc Louis once pulled off chains of pranks against each other. One of the pranks involved Little Mac replacing Doc Louis's chocolate bar with a tiny and somewhat sturdy water balloon. Mac still remembered the completely daunted look that washed over his mentor's face.

_"This ain't chocolate," Doc said with a wonderfully confused expression. "Who stole my chocolate?"_

That day, Doc Louis gave Mac an unusually hardcore running session. The session was practically the only time where Mac got chased by a bicycle instead of being told to follow one.

Little Mac grunted as he pulled the broken punching bag across the gym.

The gym was far larger than the lightweight champion had expected. Perhaps the massive size of the gym made Little Mac feel even smaller than he already was. Then again, for someone nicknamed "Little Mac," Mac himself was not that small. The competition he fought in simply made his name fitting.

Now that he thought about it, other boxers who were not all that tall had begun to jump into the boxing battlegrounds with great motivations after he retired. Most of their inspirations had been Little Mac, who now remained as a legend of the WVBA. Mac felt happy to find that there were others who were willing to overcome their own weaknesses and strive to become number one. The question was "who would become the victor," for there could only be one _number one _in the world of boxing.

The lightweight boxer heaved the bag to what appeared to be an equipment disposal dumpster. Apparently, equipment was actually expected to break at some point, which meant that the lightweight champion had probably used a very old punching bag. After all, the strange gel that filled the punching bag seemed like it could withstand more than a mere five-thousand punches during a single punch-out session.

After he gathered the weird gel and threw it in the disposal dumpster, he proceeded to enter a restroom installed within the gym.

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Suddenly, a square tile was removed from the ceiling, revealing a speck of black in the fairly bright gym. After a few seconds of silence, a figure slowly came down from the ceiling with a wire connected to his back. Donning a stealth suit and the pose of an experienced infiltrator, the man in the gray suit slowly let the wire move him closer to the ground.

The man, who was directly above the equipment disposal dumpster, opened the lid of the large container, quickly taking out a magazine he left inside of it. As stealthy as a trained infiltrator could be, the man pulled himself back up, happy with the fact that he successfully reclaimed his copy of a Victoria's Secret issue.

Unbeknownst to the stealthy man, Little Mac had gotten out of the restroom quite quickly. The boxer watched the man, whose back and legs were facing Mac, as the spy's wire pulled the man back up. After the unnamed man's entire body vanished, the tile slowly closed itself.

Little Mac stared at the tile for a few good seconds before turning away from the ceiling.

He pretended that he did not just see a turtle in a bikini on the front cover of that magazine.

* * *

><p>Mac's pink hoodie allowed made jogging around the gym comfortable. Due to the immense size of the entire gym, he decided that running around the place for one hundred laps sounded like a good idea.<p>

Train. Train harder. Train harder and harder and harder. Train until his heart pounded without beating twice in a second.

The lightweight champion had a talent in rigorously doing a training lesson without taking a break. This particular trait of his made up for the lack of other things he just could not improve upon, as he was able to stabilize his overall fighting style. Since Mac's boxing involved a fair amount of footwork and flexible punches, the champion concluded that leg exercises were just as important as exercises that involved his fists.

He continued to jog, not noticing a yellow creature that slowly crawled its way into the gym.

As Little Mac continued to keep running with his eyes on the floor, another figure entered. The man in red took a seat at a bench, watching the boxer jog his way around the gym for his eighty-ninth time.

Uninterrupted training allowed Mac to finish his jog. A single drop of sweat rolling down his neck, Little Mac took several breaths before catching his breathing pace. The times he spent running with Doc Louis made the jog around the gym feel like nothing. The boxer had to admit that he felt a little tired in general, however. He had not gotten any sleep since he arrived at the mansion.

Much to his surprise, however, a man with a red cap sat on a bench, waving at him with an optimistic mood and an impressed smile. The wearer of the red cap had a particularly interesting anatomy, as his nose seemed quite large. There was also the cartoony mustache right between his nose and his mouth. Crawled up next to the fairly round man was a yellow, mouse-like creature that looked like it was... clapping.

The sight was still better to indulge upon than to watch the sandbag with googly eyes blink.

"Hello!" The man in blue overalls stated, walking up to Little Mac with an outstretched hand. "You must-a be Mister Mac, correct?"

Though he did not know how this Italian plumber knew about him, Little Mac nodded. It may have been likely that the planning of his arrival had been discussed much earlier between the Master Hand and Doc Louis, and the discussion somehow fell into the ears of the current fighters in the tournament. Or maybe he was just overthinking things and the news of his arrival was simply delivered to everybody.

That would apply for Ms. Toadstool as well, whom he thought of as a nice person.

"Mac," the lightweight boxer said as he lightly pat his chest with a glove before moving it towards the Italian's direction. "You?"

"Well; it's-a-me, Mario!"

For once, Little Mac appreciated such a friendly, cheesy line after a whole career of ignoring trash talk from his opponents.

The boxing champion smiled and nodded, appreciating Mario for the greeting. Seeing the smile on Mac's face, Mario brightened as well. The Italian man, who was actually the hero of the same Mushroom Kingdom Princess Peach hailed from, honestly did feel intimidated after witnessing a small bit of Little Mac's training. The boxer had relentlessly destroyed a punching bag that not even Ganondorf could obliterate that easily. A spree of regular punches somehow dented and, eventually, destroyed the sturdy bag.

While Mario did not know about much of Little Mac's actual personality, so far, he liked what he saw within the lightweight champion. For a boxer who had fought within an environment filled with cheaters, the New York boxer did not seem to be annoyed with having conversations.

Though, the plumber had to admit that the boxer was a man of few words. For after the two exchanged greetings, Little Mac simply pointed at a yellow Pokemon, curiosity filling his emotions to the brim.

"Aha! This fella right here is a Pokemon!" Mario explained, watching the mouse-like Pokemon stare at Little Mac with a scrutinizing look on his face. "Pokemon are strange species that lived variously different lifestyles! This Pokemon here is-a Pikachu."

Mac nodded, staring at the mouse creature in awe. It looked... cute. The look Pikachu gave him seemed a little unsteady; almost as if it were about to tackle him like a bowling pin.

The lightweight champion concluded that some fighters might need some time to get used to him. Some fighters just might not get along with him at all, if he applied knowledge from his boxing career into the Smash Bros. Tourneys.

Nevertheless, Little Mac exchanged more friendly chit-chats with the Italian man known as Mario, along with keeping an eye on the timid Pikachu.

* * *

><p>Thirty minutes after Mario left to deal with other businesses, Little Mac ran around the gym some more before calling it a day. Walking out of the gym, the boxer headed straight out of the large hallway. He entered the lobby at the first floor.<p>

He noticed two figures sitting across each other. Both of them leaned away from the backs of their chairs, as they were focused on staring down at a small table sitting between them. The white-haired man had a calm and collected expression on his face, while the blue-haired woman, while somewhat calm, had a slightly ticked off expression.

Uh oh.

According to Doc Louis, angry women were like angry Doc Louises that were grounded from eating chocolate. And a Doc Louis that could not eat chocolate was not a dull one, but rather, an extremely angry and hyperactive coach who would surpass anything just to get some chocolate.

Little Mac, with his hoodie still over his head, walked over to the pair.

They were playing Chess.

Chess. Looking at the chess board made Mac realize that much of what he learned from boxing tended to apply for many other things. While Mac did boast a massive amount of power and speed he earned from training, he was unable to reach the level of power Mr. Sandman, the previous champion of the WVBA, carried with great pride. Piston Hondo, one of the more honorable boxers, was faster than a bullet train, and Soda Popinski, a supremely muscular and passionate Russian boxer, had a durability that rivaled that of a zombie's.

So how did Little Mac surpass those who already surpassed him in different ways?

The boxer watched the white-haired man place a black chess piece next to the white King piece.

The Queen sent to trap the King sealed the fate of the match.

"Checkmate," the white-haired man stated with a small smile. The blue-haired woman sighed and shook her head.

Little Mac won by strategy.

No boxer other than Doc Louis had actually specialized in using the opponents' overall fighting styles against themselves. It was a tricky way of defeating the colossal titans of the WVBA, and not only did Little Mac succeed with it, but he also learned a lot from it. Before his path to glory, Mac was far more aggressive and had great impatience with practically everything about his experience in boxing. Intelligence supported the great amount of strength he found within himself, thus empowering him with a standardized arsenal that could completely catch his opponents off-guard.

Swarming... out-boxing... slugging... and even boxer-punching. Mac had to switch around his fighting styles for every opponent, ultimately making him the champion not through a physical talent, but through the gift of intellectual genius. He may not have been known as a very smart man, but he was, for sure, a man who knew how to face odds of many kinds even outside of boxing.

The lightweight boxing champion moved past the two, presuming that they were having enough fun on their own. He took a seat near them, turning the chair so that he could watch the two people playing Chess with each other.

Thankfully enough, they seemed so indulged by the games that they did not notice Mac at all.

"Blast it," the blue-haired woman muttered, shaking her head as she lost yet another bishop. The white-haired man decided to give her some advice.

"Remain calm and think about the possibilities both you and your opponents can fulfill. What could deter me? What could assist me? What could deter you, and what could assist you? You need to keep asking yourself those questions and consistently answer them."

"R-Right," the woman said, looking up at the man before looking down at the chessboard again.

Little Mac felt a little sorry for the woman. Judging by how the man set up his pieces, the man planned on going for an extremely swift attack that could end the game within seconds. He was in a clear position to move his bishop before moving it again and instantly kill the king due to the fact that every piece that was supposed to protect it had already been disposed of. If the king moved, then the rook that remained still would kill it anyway.

Although he knew how to completely turn the tides, the boxer remained silent. He did not want to show off his own knowledge and make others feel bad. Then there was also the fact that Little Mac himself could have been wrong about the white-haired man's strategies.

After a crushing defeat, the blue-haired woman sighed again.

"Robin," she began, though she was quickly interrupted by the man known as Robin.

"Look, Lucina. You're definitely improving. I mean, sure, you may not excel at certain things like I do, but you're still reaching a level that can be respected by others."

Lucina rolled her eyes, briefly looking away from Robin.

Sitting right next to her was a man wearing a pink jumpsuit.

"W-Whoa!" Robin let out, startled by how silently Mac appeared right next to them. "And... who might you be?"

Mac felt tempted to yell out "I'm the Batman" with an extremely raspy and loud voice.

The boxer decided to answer the question he heard two times during his first day at the mansion. It was understandable, considering that Little Mac himself did not even enter the tryouts yet, thus creating the possibility that not everyone would actually remember about a newcomer arriving early. He pat his chest with a boxing glove before uttering out "Mac" once more.

"Well, Mac, my name is Robin," the white-haired man said with a somewhat awkward smile. "The woman beside you is Lucina. She is one of my best friends."

"It is a pleasure to meet you."

"..."

The boxer nodded. He then stared at the chessboard.

"...?" Lucina looked at Mac, then at the chessboard, then at Mac again, before she hesitantly asked, "Do you not know what Chess is?"

"Lucina, you look like you're insulting him right now. He's from Earth, a world that does, indeed, have Chess."

The blue-haired woman stiffened before she mumbled, "My apologies for jumping into conclusions."

Robin chuckled before he turned his attention to Little Mac. The man gave the boxer a calculating look, as if to analyze Mac's identity in general. Thankfully, the pink jumpsuit only seemed to confuse him. Mac felt awkward whenever someone looked at him like that. Then, with a smile, Robin asked the boxer,

"I know it has not been much since we first met, but would you like to play a game of Chess?"

Mac nodded.

He did, indeed, want a good Chess battle.

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><p><em>A few seconds later...<em>

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><p>When Little Mac's white Bishop piece cornered Robin's King, everyone froze.<p>

_Wait, _Little Mac thought calmly, _did I just beat him this quickly?_

It seemed far too late for that now, as Lucina raised a trembling hand at Mac.

_Uh oh._

"Y-Y-You beat _ROBIN IN A GAME OF CHESS?!_" Lucina exclaimed with clear shock written over her face. "And only in _**THREE**__ MOVES?!_ What on Ylisse is- Robin? Robin, why are you looking at the Bishop piece like that? Wait- **NO, ROBIN!** Please restrain yourself from destroying the chess piece, Robin! It's just a chess piece, I tell you! Just! A! Chess piece! Robin? _Robin?!_ **ROBIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!**"

Little Mac ran the heck out like there was no tomorrow. Had he known that the strategist known as Robin would have flipped his sh-t, he would have gotten his King sent right up to get killed by a Pawn. It was, after all, sheer coincidence that Robin just happened to get the only piece capable of protecting the king to move completely out of the way.

Needless to say, the sound of electricity and fire being cast behind him absolutely terrified him. From what he remembered, Magic Chess only existed in Hogwarts.

Even then, Magic Chess did not involve the generation of electricity, fire, and the sounds of small-sized explosions.

_You're a wizard, Mac baby,_ the boxer thought to himself in Doc Louis's voice. _A wizard at p-ssing people off, that is._


	5. Robin's Sanity,exe has stopped working

**Update 12/12/2014: Made some grammatical updates.**

* * *

><p>The day finally ended, and Little Mac went to go get some sleep.<p>

In his stay at the mansion so far, he met a friendly Italian dude, a very nice person, a yellow mouse, a pervert that came from the ceiling of the gym, and a man who flipped out because of Chess. Oh yeah, and he also met a flying glove, alongside a sandbag with googly eyes.

Things were already looking strange for Mac.

Taking off his jumpsuit, Little Mac noticed that someone put the luggage Doc Louis brought in a corner. Thanking whatever employee that took their time to bring the luggage in, he dressed out of his boxing clothes, fitting himself into a simple pair of boxer shorts. Like his jumpsuit, the boxers were pink.

The boxer proceeded to take out some of the items he brought along with him. He brushed his teeth, washed his teeth, and even took a quick shower. Mac noticed that he could have just worn the boxers after he showered, but he just stopped caring about such matters due to his weary state. Sleep sounded just too good for him after a fairly chaotic first day.

Little Mac walked out of his bathroom after drying his hair, heading straight towards his bedroom.

Something, however, caught his eye.

There was a person sitting on his sofa, sleeping silently.

Why did Peach pop up here?

He supposed that some rich ladies knew how to teleport into random places. With that said, the lightweight boxing champion walked over to the sleeping lady. In her hands was a basket of flowers.

Ah... But then again, Doc and Master Hand might have returned to his dormitory for unknown reasons. How Peach herself entered the dormitory remained a mystery to him.

Mac supposed that the flowers were for either him or someone she was unable to give to. After all, it could not be meant for Doc Louis, as his favorite flower was "chocolate," or so he claimed.

The boxer in boxers looked around. Mac did not bring in any blankets, and currently, he only had one in his bedroom. With that said, he had no intentions on leaving the kind person alone, even if he did not know where she regularly slept at. Sure, the temperature manager in the room actually seemed great, but who was he to assume that everyone would feel things just like he did?

Taking out the soft, white blanket out of his bedroom, the lightweight champion walked over to the woman before roughly placing it over her. He was not one to wrap people with blankets, though he was the kind of person who sort of sent boxers flying into hospital blankets. At the very least, he did take the basket of flowers from the woman's hands before placing it next to her at a fair distance.

Looking at the woman now covered by the white blanket, Little Mac went back to his bedroom. He slept comfortably.

* * *

><p>The next day, things got very uncomfortable for Mac.<p>

Much to his relief, Peach had sort of disappeared, though she did leave the basket in front of his bedroom door. There was a tiny letter stuffed at the center of the basket with the following words: "These flowers leave good scents! I hope you enjoy them."

The flowers did, indeed, smell nice. The fragrance it left behind, however, was a little too strong for his nose, as he never really did spend time nearby a lot of flowers. After all, the only flower he saw very commonly was chocolate.

What really bothered him was how a sudden amount of people began to wander around the mansion.

First things first, he saw a man in some sort of old-fashioned tunic. It almost looked like a green dress, though the man who donned the clothes said otherwise. He had pointy ears like that of an elf's, and sharp eyes that had the experience of a warrior's within them. The man ignored Mac, only offering him a quick glance.

There was also Robin, whom he had met the previous day. Much to his dismay, once Robin saw Mac, his eyes glued themselves on the lightweight champion, disturbing him to the point where he felt like busting out of the mansion with Ghost Rider's motorcycle. What kinds of emotions Robin had behind the obviously hellbent face, Little Mac did not want to know. Currently, it seemed that the white-haired man did not like something about the boxer. Perhaps it was because of the stereotypical image of a boxer?

No... It was probably more than that.

Then Mac came across a humanoid fox with a _blaster _on its _belt_. Thankfully enough, the fox known as "Fox McCloud" had his fair share of manners, as he immediately introduced himself after noticing Mac. Fox was the leader of a mercenary group known as Star Fox, and had saved worlds with his own wits and several combat vehicles. Though Mac did respect Fox for what he apparently did, he just could not help but feel weirded out by the mercenary's appearance.

The lightweight champion also met the person in the blue jumpsuit, who he remembered from his first day at the strange, new world. She did not seem that interested in Little Mac at the moment, as she consistently jumped over a jump rope... on top of a rail.

Some people were just weird.

Mac proceeded to enter the cafeteria, only to bump into a tall figure. He felt his body roughly push through a thick cape before colliding against the body of the cape's wearer.

"Hm?"

A man with red hair and a beard turned to Mac, only to raise an eyebrow. He had clothes that seemed like they came from royalty, though not exactly from a good one. A disturbing light remained glowing at the center of his chest, and his entire facial structure screamed "I'm evil."

And sure enough, the man was evil. Little Mac noticed that this man was the same person who got punched out of a window the other day.

"Watch where you're going, kid," the man with the evil eyes muttered, turning back to get his food. Mac blinked as he watched the red-haired man kick a kid with a baseball cap away from the lunch line.

Little Mac concluded that the man hated kids.

The boxer walked over to the boy who got kicked by the red-haired man. Helping him up, Mac noticed that the boy had a particularly innocent look on his face. How someone would decide it's commonplace to kick kids like the man just did for no justified reason would be beyond Little Mac's comprehension.

...Except Disco Kid. Anyone knew that Disco Kid could take a beating. The lightweight boxer was still grateful for the fact that Disco Kid did not hold as much hostility during boxing matches like most of the other boxers Mac faced, though the funky dancer did strike to him as an oddball.

The boy bowed politely before taking his lunch and scampering away.

It felt strange for Mac to see a bunch of people moving around the mansion, especially after seeing nobody around in the day before. The boxer ruffled the back of the hoodie he placed over his head. After taking his lunch, which turned out to be some sort of unidentified substance that Mac felt a little suspicious about, the boxer hurriedly found the spot he took the previous day. No one sat at where he was.

Skipping breakfast due to an overdose of sleep was extremely rare for Mac, but it definitely did not startle him at all. For someone who had to worry much more than an overdose of sleep, such things became quite trivial for the boxer. He woke up when he needed to, when he wanted to, and when he felt like doing so.

With a blank look on his face, the boxer sat down with Robin.

Robin?

When did Robin enter the cafeteria as well?

The lightweight champion pretended to act as if he did not notice the white-haired man that somehow followed him. Mac picked up a spoon before poking at the plain-looking blue substance on his plate. It looked... like jelly.

"That's Chu Chu Jelly," Robin pointed out, causing Mac to look up at him. "It tastes weird, but it provides a great amount of energy. Lucina gave me my own lunch, though, so I didn't eat it this time."

_So why are you here? _Mac wanted to ask, though he decided not to blurt that out loud.

Looking back at the Chu Chu Jelly, he took a handful of the jelly before eating it.

"..."

"How does it taste?"

Little Mac blinked, attempting to figure out just what on Earth he was eating. At first, he felt as if he was drinking one of Soda Popinski's chemical-enhanced sodas. The second after he felt such a weird taste made him feel like crap. Finally, he tasted something bitter.

It was official; the blue jelly sucked big time.

Still, the boxer was not reluctant on deciding whether to stop eating or not. Without any hesitation, the lightweight fighter consumed the entire jelly in mere seconds before putting his spoon down. Yet again, Robin had a fairly surprised expression.

Everything about Mac made the white-haired man look surprised so far. The boxer did not like it.

"You're strange," Robin said out of the blue. Little Mac looked up from the table, his hoodie shielding his eyes.

"I am sorry if this seems sudden," the man continued, "but I would like to make a request."

"...?"

Robin seemed extremely nervous about whatever he was going to ask. In fact, the way he fidgeted and looked around let Mac know that something was about to happen.

Slamming the table, Robin bolted up from his chair before he pumped a fist in front of himself, loudly proclaiming,

"I have the desire to have a _REMATCH IN CHESS WITH YOU! WILL YOU-_"

"No."

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"...Erm," Robin cleared his throat, still standing, before he asked once again with an open smile, "may we have a rematch in Chess?"

"No."

"...Why not?"

The boxer shrugged. How the heck was he supposed to know? Mac himself did not feel like playing Chess right at the moment, and he had a feeling that Robin was expecting something incredible out of him. Little Mac was, by no means, actually good at the game of Chess itself; he just had good ways of creating strategies for nearly every circumstance.

Standing up from the table, Little Mac obliviously walked away, leaving Robin standing still with the world's saddest smile of frozen excitement. The boxer stopped walking in the middle of his departure, turning back to take a quick look at Robin.

Robin stared at him, the sad smile still on his face. Mac swore he saw the man tremble for a millisecond.

Sometimes, Mac wanted to question Doc Louis on whether all of the Smash Tourneys' fighters had secret buttons that could be pushed to make every single one of them snap.

Nodding at Robin ever so slightly, Mac watched the white-haired man brighten up. Perhaps he himself needed to relax a little...

"Then it's set! Um... when would you prefer to have the rematch?"

The boxer slightly tilted his head upward, as if to think about it. In reality, the boxer was thinking about when the heck the tryouts would begin. Having the tryouts interrupt the Chess match could possibly result in more explosions and thunder bolts. Mac did not want to undergo that very experience for as long as possible.

* * *

><p><em>Several hours later...<em>

* * *

><p>Lucina and Robin sat across each other at the same place they played Chess with each other the other day.<p>

The Falchion's wielder felt a tad bit worried about Robin.

Ever since Robin had lost in Chess so quickly to who appeared to be a newcomer, the white-haired man had begun studying books involving strategy. He kept on muttering how his best was "not enough," despite the fact that he served in the cause of destroying the nightmare that haunted their world; Grima.

Right at the moment, the slayer of Grima gained the motivation to defeat a guy in a pink jumpsuit.

"Lucina."

"What is it, Robin?"

"I'm going to have a rematch with the Sir Macintosh tonight."

The blue-haired woman dropped the novel she had been reading, giving Robin an incredibly disturbed look.

"...And what on Ylisse led you to conclude that Sir Mac's first name is actually _Macintosh?_"

"I... I just like the ring to Macintosh. It reminds me of apples. And apples remind me of the law of gravity."

"What're you even-"

"Wait! Lucina! I just figured something out! Maybe I could just use one of those 'computer' things around and find tips on how to defeat Sir Mac."

"But you never even used a computer before, Robin! Furthermore, you don't even know what to use to get such information!"

"Do _you_ know, Lucina? It'd be great if-"

"No!"

"Lucina."

"What...?"

"Let's learn how to use a computer."

The blue-haired woman prevented herself from smashing the table in front of her into pieces.

"For Naga's sake, no! I do not plan on learning how to use a computer just to invade Sir Mac's privacy!"

"That... is kind of true. Actually, I'm not even sure if Sir Mac is a renowned Chess player in the first place. I have to admit, though..."

Robin placed his hands on his lap as he set aside the Chess Strategy book he had been reading.

Lucina gulped. _Oh no, _she thought hopelessly as she braced for what was about to come.

"He's so _**interesting**!_"

Robin practically had stars in his eyes.

"Right, Lucina? Isn't that fair man _interesting?_ I am quite curious about him now! He must have great experience as a strategist. A perfect figure to study and learn upon!"

_Oh no_, Lucina thought with a horrified frown. _My dear friend... My dear brethren... just snapped... because of a man in a pink jumpsuit..._

And indeed, Robin looked like he did snap. For a very, very long time, Robin maintained the personality of a calm and collected individual who was unable to accept that many jokes without making his own. This version of Robin, however, had begun to vanish during his time in the Smash Tourneys. While the Smash Tourneys themselves were great to participate in, she could not help but worry about her friend's diminishing sanity in such a strange world.

She needed to do something. She needed to do something before Robin snapped and go crazy like the man known as "Roy" had before. Though she highly doubted that Robin would smash his sword onto the ground and blow up Master Hand's entire collection of Smash Tourney pictures like Roy had, it was possible that the white-haired man could do something just as bad through a different way.

_I'll do something about this! I HAVE to do something about this! I know it's sudden, but I'm better off solving the problem as suddenly as it appeared! The sooner the better._

But... what could she do?

…

...She did not seem to have much of a choice. Perhaps the pink man was the root of all of this. Perhaps the man in the pink jumpsuit was the true bane of Robin's sanity. Whatever the case was, however, Lucina needed to pry Robin off of Sir Mac.

After all, she could probably win at a game without a substantial amount of strategies... right?


	6. Space Pirates And Chess Pieces

_"So I heard Robin's going to have babies."_

_"...Ganon, I know you're bored as of recently, but you should really cool down with the jokes. And what're you talking about? Robin's a dude."_

_"Hm? Wait, I didn't mean Robin. I didn't mean Robin at all."_

_..._

_..._

_"...Theeeeeen who is the fortunate woman who has babies?"_

_"I dunno."_

_"Whaddya mean you 'dunno'? Just a few seconds ago, you were-"_

_"OH! Heck yeah. I, the King of Evil, just figured it out. I guess I'm better than you in some ways, Captain Falcon of the 99 Dragons._

_Marth is going to have babies."_

_"..."_

_..._

_..._

_..._

_"...Wait a minute..."_

_..._

_..._

_..._

_..._

_"...Don't tell that to Marth."_

_"Much obliged. And I'll be honest; I nearly believed you there."_

* * *

><p>"SIR MAC! I MUST ASK OF YOU-"<p>

"No."

Little Mac had been walking around the gym for the sake of exercising lightly. Activities such as walking were highly overlooked, despite the fact that it helped out with stretching muscles and churning some calories. People often stated that walking was "overrated," but Mac thought otherwise. Walking made people less lazy, though many lazy people often blamed the entire concept of walking to be ineffective. Most of such people were those who did not exercise from the very beginning.

One did not need to be a champion to walk. They only needed the will to improve, reflect, and repeat.

With that said, a woman known as Lucina had been following him throughout the majority of his walk.

"E-Er...! Uh," Lucina stumbled over her own words, "I... wish to inform that ?"

"..."

"Oh! How about this? I challenge you to a friendly match that will determine who will claim Robin!"

Something about Robin must have brought terrible luck on Mac.

The boxer glanced at Lucina, who, at this point, looked like she was about to burst into a fit of anger and tears. And in fact, she did feel like bursting into tears at the thought of being unable to retrieve Robin's sanity. The man in the pink jumpsuit was the primary reason as to why Robin blew up.

Though he did not really know why she thought that he was stealing Robin away from _anybody_, the lightweight boxing champion figured that he could also use this to measure the extent of the weirdness within his soon-to-be fellow contenders in the Smash Tourneys.

Little Mac stopped walking, startling the wielder of the Falchion. Turning to her with an exasperated, yet determined look, the boxer gave her a sharp glare.

He slowly reached out for her.

Lucina felt confused at the sight of a fist near her face. The man in the pink jumpsuit remained still for three seconds.

He then flicked her forehead.

"Ow!"

After the little flick, Mac relaxed his shoulders, taking a small step back. Smiling a little, Mac spoke more than two words in a sentence for the first time.

"You're too tense."

The blue-haired woman blinked, her hands hovering over her forehead. She bit the bottom of her lip, lowering her hands, as she sighed to let out all of her tensed emotions. She did, indeed, feel a little _too _tense over the matter, but she still cared about Robin. Looking up at the man in the pink jumpsuit, the woman strengthened her resolve and looked much calmer than before.

"I would like to kindly request of something to you, Sir Mac."

"...?"

As Lucina attempted to inform Mac about a deal revolving around a certain tactician that she knew of, the boxer suddenly felt something vibrate in one of his hoodie's pockets. He reached for it, only to take out an old flip phone. Doc Louis was calling him about something.

Without any hesitation, Little Mac turned away from Lucina, who continued to talk about her turmoil, lifting the phone by his head.

"Yo, Mac! Ey, we need to change up that phone soon, ya?"

Mac shrugged, only to realize that he was on a phone. He grunted, which served perfectly as an auditory alternative to shrugging.

"Anyway, I've got a few stuff to talk with you about. 'S 'bout some info I got about the tournaments, along with your debut here. Still talkin' with the Hand here- no pun intended-, but once we're clear with everything, I'll go talk to you about it. In the meantime, keep getting along with some of the contestants, aight?"

The boxer nodded, putting away the phone when the call ended with Doc Louis laughing encouragingly. He looked up, wondering just what he should do during his free time.

He then realized that Lucina was still talking, now going on about how Robin saved an entire world before. Little Mac was beginning to wonder whether Robin came from some sort of fantasy version of a Batman universe, but then he remembered that Batman did not go well with fantasy without being influenced by weird changes in the first place.

Thus, he decided to stop thinking about unimportant matters for the sake of returning to reality. But now that Lucina was talking about some sort of Grima thing, he straightforwardly concluded that she was going a little nuts over the man who wanted to play Chess with him for the night.

Before Mac bailed out of Lucina's lengthy explanation of how important Robin was, however, a familiar person approached him and the blue-haired woman.

Donning a stealth suit that Mac could not exactly forget quickly about, a man with a headband walked toward him with a scowl.

"..."

"..."

"...and then Robin told me, 'But I do know that I could help you,' and it was then I knew that he was truly a great person. He even gave Chrom a coconut pie- AGH! I, uh..."

The scruffy man wearing the stealth suit raised an eyebrow at blue-haired swordswoman, who stared at him incredulously.

"I'm... I'm terribly sorry not to have noticed you, Solid Snape."

"...It's _Snake_."

"Snake! Yes, Snake! Not Snape!"

Mac decided to keep Snake's name in mind to make a good impression, though he was more interested in the idea of a man named "Snake" staring at a magazine with a cover image of a bikini-wearing turtle. After all, Snake himself did not exactly look like a person who would... stare at bikini turtles in the first place.

And it seemed that Snake figured out that Mac had seen him, for he turned to him with a dead serious look on his face.

"Your name is... Mac, right? So, if I remember correctly, we met under circumstances that might have created some misunderstandings of some sorts."

Mac nodded, fully admitting that magazines with bikini turtles tended to bring a whole lot of misunderstandings. The fact that he was thinking about this without laughing out of a mix of horror and pure confusion made Little Mac wonder how crazy the boxing tournaments he contended in exactly were.

Snake, however, did not seem to know how to clear misunderstandings, as he took out the same magazine he had earlier. Opening the magazine, he gave the boxer the weird magazine. Though Mac had second thoughts about reading through a magazine with a bikini turtle on its cover, he noticed something strange about the magazine's contents.

Instead of some horrifying sight to behold, two white pages and several black lines were present. The formation of the lines let Mac notice that it was some sort of tournament bracket.

The man in the stealth-suit whispered to the boxer, "I'm going to be participating in a tournament held around here, y'see. Thing is... no one is supposed to really know about how the brackets are formatted until the battles actually begin. I like to think about how to face my opponents before the battles begin, so it's only natural for me to gather this much information. As for that magazine cover I found... It's just weird enough to ward off any suspicious peeps. Except for turtles."

Leaning away from Mac, Snake explained without whispering, "I'm only telling you this because no one ever saw me _with _that magazine before, and you don't really look like someone who'd go off telling on others, anyway."

Though Mac wondered if whether what Snake was doing qualified as cheating or not, he decided to stay out of the entire business and nod. He did find Snake's explanation surprisingly believable, and considering the things he had to go through before he arrived in the strange world, he found it easy to believe the man. To assure Snake that he would not be telling anyone the truth behind the disguised magazine, Mac gave the man a quick thumbs-up. Snake nodded back, a small sigh of relief emitting out of him, before slowly leaving Mac with Lucina once more.

"Sorry for the small talk," the gruff man muttered as he left. "I have business to attend to right at the moment."

Everything that just transpired, however, looked completely different from Lucina's point-of-view.

* * *

><p>Lucina froze still at the sight of Solid Snake taking out a magazine with a bikini turtle on its cover.<p>

_W-...What on Ylisse is that?_

She then stiffened when he _opened _the magazine and _gave _the stupid thing to the boxer known as Mac.

_Why is Snape giving a magazine with a bikini turtle on its cover to Sir Mac?_

_Why did Sir Mac **receive **that magazine?!_

_WHY DOES SIR MAC LOOK SO INTERESTED?!_

The blue-haired swordswoman, by no means, hated Mac. The sight of him reading through a magazine with a bikini turtle on its cover, however...

Oh yes, and Snake did seem interested in the magazine as well. In fact, he whispered to Mac, and Lucina was barely able to make out several words.

"I'm...going to...part...y..., y'see..."

I'm going to party, y'see.

"I like to think about...face...battles..."

I like to think about face battles.

"...it's...natural..."

It's natural.

"I...peep...turtles."

I peep turtles.

I peep turtles.

**I peep turtles.**

_NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO- That's just... Sir Mac! Please knock some sense into him or something!_

Little Mac nodded with a knowing smile... not at Lucina, but at Snake.

_**AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! This man is dangerous in more than one way! **I need to do something about this, or else Robin too might start to-_

Lucina snapped. By the time Snake began to leave, she vanished at the speed of light without fulfilling anything useful for her troubled friend at all.

* * *

><p>With Lucina gone, life became mysterious and serene for Mac again.<p>

After exercising further more in the gym, the boxing champion took a walk around the mansion he now resided in. While waiting endlessly for some deal to be made between Doc and the Master Hand felt a little tiring in some ways, he did find the large mansion itself to be entirely unique in its own way. There was nearly everything that a millionaire might want, yet not everybody decided to live like millionaires. To think that the mansion was a house for champions further spiked his interest in the tournaments that were held in the strange world.

Everything felt so in-place, and that surprised Mac more than anything. The creators of the entire tournament had to be both geniuses and incredibly powerful sentient beings. If Mac learned anything from those weird space alien movies, it was the thought of finding something not human be more than what humans could ever be. In a sense, Mac had discovered something that should have scared him rather than pleasantly surprising him.

Walking out of a hallway, Mac looked around. He still had time, and Robin was (thankfully) not a Chess addict that never left the lobby. Time seemed to move so slowly in the mansion.

_What should I do?_

The boxer looked around, his hands in his pockets. He had been wearing the pink hoodie for a particularly long time, though he really had no problems with wearing the comfortable clothes. It endured through his years of training, and served as a lucky token for harsh times. Though it never provided the same amount of warmth as a sweater would, Mac never felt cold with the hoodie on. He just felt a passion that would never die, even after time moved on to a wholly new generation.

Mac noticed a hallway he never really entered before. Unlike most of the hallways around, this particular hallway led up to only a single pair of double-doors. After walking down the spacious area, he stared at a single word etched on a golden plate neatly attached to one of the doors.

_Garden_

He tilted his head by instinct, wondering if there really was a garden inside the mansion. Before he was able to open the door, however, something else opened it for him.

The doors burst open, allowing Mac to face...

...An air conditioner.

Mac slammed the doors shut when he noticed a paper that read "Under Construction!" pasted over the air conditioner. Why on Earth an air conditioner would take the place of a garden that was not even present, he did not know, but he decided not to further question the interesting(?) morals behind the people of the strange universe.

Leaving the mansion itself, however, proved to show more things to the lightweight boxing champion. Leaving out of a convenient back door, the boxer eventually left the mansion for a brief tour.

The backyard of the mansion was ironically consisted of a huge field of flowers and a flat field that looked identical to that of a fancy park's.

In fact, this field looked just as vast as the mansion did, the only difference being that the serene field had nothing but the skies to look up at. Mac noticed a familiar woman hunched over a small bed of pink flowers.

Curiosity stirred within Mac when he failed to figure out what the blonde woman did with the light pink flowers. Walking up to the woman, Mac found himself standing to the lady's right, his hands still in his pockets.

Silence prevailed for a few minutes, and Little Mac watched the lady known as Peach care for the flowers tenderly. He presumed that she had planted the pink bed of flowers in the eye-soothingly vibrant sea of flowers. Mac found it interesting to see someone directly taking care of plants with such careful handiwork; after all, no matter how many parks filled New York, Mac had not seen a single soul actually caring a whole lot for the flowers. Perhaps he had only seen Wall Street celebrities instead of people who had interesting hobbies during the years of his career.

Mac swore that he saw the flowers make some sort of dancing motion for a brief second, but quickly forgot about the soft-colored flowers' strangely delicate movements when he heard Peach's voice.

"Hello!"

"..."

"I'm sorry if I didn't see you earlier, Mister Mac. I'm terrible at paying attention at a lot of things at once!"

Mac shrugged as he moved a small step away from Peach. The lady stood up with a polite smile.

For some reason, the image of Doc Louis mentioning his favorite kind of "flower" nearly made Mac snicker for no justified reason. Fortunately for the boxing champion, he managed to remain calm and not look like a weirdo that randomly giggled at the air.

"Um," Peach said, attempting to successfully piece her words together in an attempt to get a conversation going, "I've recently grown an interest in growing flowers, as you can see."

Before Mac made any kind of response, however, Peach let out a soft-spoken "Oh!" before motioning over to the flowers.

"I have never seen these kinds of flowers until not too long ago, actually! They come from a land not too far from my home outside of the mansion. From what I've seen, the flowers dance if you tickle them! I've only just found out about these strange flowers."

Flowers that reacted to tickling... Now that was entirely new.

Mac looked over at Peach, then at the flowers. They seemed like completely normal flowers, but as soon as Mac crouched and tickled one of the plants, it really did begin to dance away from him.

The flabbergasted boxer apparently made a funny face, for Peach laughed at the look he had when he turned to her.

Perhaps it was not the dancing flowerbed that did not draw him into staying a little longer in the field, however. Peach herself had many interesting qualities to her, though most of them had to do with her unique background. The land she lived in seemed like an extreme contrast to the world Mac lived in. Compared to Mac's world, Peach's world seemed to have more flowers and a much larger dose of joy in it.

_A world shaped like a big, rosy peach_ described her world quite well, it seemed.

* * *

><p><em>Several hours later...<em>

* * *

><p>Mac walked out of his dormitory with his pink jumpsuit on.<p>

There were several amazing things he discovered in his dormitory. The first amazing thing was his laundry machine. It literally finished its job in _one minute_. How the heck a laundry machine could be designed to do everything a good laundry machine could possibly ever do within a minute, Mac did not know of, but he liked it. The machine even had an automatic drying function on it, though there were obviously several exceptions that could not use the function. Luckily for Mac, his hoodie remained to be faithfully amazing in its own way, seeing how there were so many ways to clean it so quickly for everyday use.

The second amazing thing was a donut-shaped music player that also had the ability to make coffee. Mac may not drink coffee as often as he eats chocolate, but perhaps Doc Louis would find some sort of epic use for the coffee maker. The music player seemed to be a portable kind, but Mac decided not to bring it out with him due to how expensive it looked.

And to top off the two amazing things he had in his room...

A small printer rested snugly in his living room. While it seemed like a regular printer, the machine had absolutely no purpose other than to print out free chocolate bar tickets from the local market nearby the mansion.

Things were already looking promising for his stay at the mansion.

Taking a look at the time with his old cellphone, Little Mac decided to take one final jog before meeting up with Robin. This time, however, he intended on jogging outside of the mansion for good.

"Outside of the mansion" was what he saw and what he got. Clusters of fancy buildings and unique streets lay distant from the mansion. Restaurants littered many nooks and crannies, and so many strange creatures walked around the place. There was some sort of brown mushroom-shaped buggers (some walking around with backpacks wrapped around their bodies), anthropomorphic fish people, penguins, armored skeletal people with unfitting shopping bags within their hands, and even a bug-eyed thing that just could not be described with a detailed explanation.

All of the strange things were starting to look somewhat commonplace for Mac, and that greatly bothered him. With that in mind, the lightweight boxer walked into a bank out of pure curiosity.

Everything felt so different, and even though there were not any groundbreaking differences between his world's banks and this world's banks. Blame the variety of creatures roaming around the whole place.

The boxer decided to sit on a nearby coach, closing his eyes and relaxing for a quick break. A fair amount of distance existed between the mansion and the city, which made the entire jog take a surprisingly long time. He slouched over, his body melting onto the irresistibly comfortable couch.

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

A few minutes later, he heard a window crash.

So much for quick breaks. Mac quickly put on his boxing gloves.

"_**MWA HA HA HA HA HA!**_" An armored space pirate with some sort of 90's plasma weapon roared as people screamed out of surprise and fear. "_**MY NAME IS-**_"

Little Mac got up, walked over to the terrorist before Star Punching him.

The space pirate's chin seemed to widen for a split moment before the pirate crashed through the roof of the bank. Blue skies hiding behind a crude hole signified the crystalline day.

Mac actually improved the signature Star Punch he had, though he never exactly used it on an alien before. Also, the alien talked pretty slowly, and that was enough for him to put on the boxing gloves he brought around with him.

After taking a deep breath, Little Mac shook his head. If he were Sandman, the alien would probably fly into the moon or something. The man in the pink jumpsuit looked around the bank that had gone quiet.

...Bank?

_Oh yeah,_ Mac thought, now remembering where he was. _I'm in a bank._

Everyone in the bank gave Mac an amazed look.

Mac gave everyone a blank look.

Suddenly, the sound of explosions erupted just outside of the bank. Turning around swiftly, the lightweight boxing champion leapt over the window that the space pirate happened to crash through. Landing shortly after the jump, the boxer left the one-floor building, his gloves close to his chest. For some reason, he had a notion that things were not going to end well.

There were three other intimidating space pirates running through the streets, bags of what appeared to be gold coins slung over their shoulders. Whatever stood in their way, they attempted to shoot down.

And Little Mac was in their way.

_Now that I'm taking a closer look, _he thought, doing his best to calm himself down for a possible battle, _these aliens look really frightening. Where did they come from?_

Frightening or not, they were harming the city. Mac was not one to run away and let others get hurt, even if he was not some super hero that everybody loved. And he also thought about testing some of the new techniques he learned on the gun-wielding freakshows. He did not know how their weapons functioned, and he had no means of being able to dodge a bullet.

...But if he had seen through Piston Hondo's _Hondo Rush _combo before, then that probably would have been more than enough to see through things such as bullets. He would have to be careful before going in.

Mac pulled his pink hood over his face. Doc Louis or Master Hand might recognize him if they were anywhere close to the city, but no one else had yet to see the boxer up-close.

Thus, he ran towards the aliens, not knowing that they were the same aliens that gave a certain bounty hunter a fair amount of trouble.

The three space pirates, unlike the particularly excited one Mac met earlier, immediately raised their weapons without talking. Cold blood seemed to run down their veins, but Mac's boiling adrenaline just might have outmatched their precision.

All of them were pointing straight at his head. Where would he go? How could he approach them? What could he use against them?

Then he noticed that all of them were right-handed, judging by the way they held their one-handed weapons.

_There._

Mac dashed left before jumping towards the nearest space pirate. His glove collided powerfully against the alien's head. Sent airborne from the strong punch, the pirate flew straight towards one of his comrades, causing both of them to fall straight into a laundromat. They strangely landed straight into one of the laundry machines, which began to wash the two of them with great efficiency.

"Grr!"

The remaining space pirate stopped running, putting away his weapon before causing a golden blade to slide out of its left arm.

_Uh oh._

Little Mac brought his gloves up to his face, his eyes sharply looking into the alien's. He saw nothing but two glowing yellow eyes and a lean body that belonged to a very mean creature.

Apparently, space pirates regularly did not speak, for the alien creature screeched before slashing at Mac. The boxer dodged left, then right, then right again. He then ducked from a horizontal slash that could have left him in two bloody french fries before doing a Happy Meal maneuver from a vertical slash.

...Okay, so now was not the time to think about stupid puns.

All fifteen slashes made by the vicious pirate only met contact with the air, with Mac continuously stepping back. Hissing at the lightweight boxer, the space pirate stepped back before raising its firearm.

_Now._

As abruptly as he landed, Little Mac suddenly launched himself toward the alien, connecting a right hook against the alien's chest. He then immediately followed the hook with a jab, then another hook, and then a dozen phantom punches that clearly caught the creature off-guard. Swarms of punches pummeled the hostile creature that Mac had just met. Finally showing his opponent some mercy from his seemingly endless combination of hooks and jabs, Little Mac tightly clenched his right fist.

Landing his glove against the pirate's chin, Little Mac jumped towards the skies, spinning around like a drill. That alone was enough to knock out the alien creature, much to his surprise. As he fell back down to the ground, the boxer noticed something strange.

_How were my attacks so effective against them? If I'm right, they had armor on them._

What Little Mac did not know was that a majority of the stronger fighters in the WVBA had the potential to destroy such things as "armor." Mr. Sandman, for example, did not know what armor even was in the first place.

Mac landed on his butt.

_Oof._

Following his fall, the pirate he defeated followed suite, crashing onto the ground. Muttering out a perfect stream of curse words in its alien language, the creature fainted on-spot.

With the creature taken care of, the lightweight boxing champion looked around before standing back up. Dusting the back of his pants, Little Mac lightly stretched his wrists before turning.

The boxer jogged away quietly, planning on leaving the scene before anyone had the chance to go talk to him.

* * *

><p>"Sir Macintosh!"<p>

By the time Mac returned to the mansion, Robin arrived at the lobby. The white-haired man sat with a chessboard set up neatly. The lightweight boxer smiled at the excited man he would soon face in a game of Chess.

"You have come earlier than I thought, Sir Macintosh," Robin said, speeding through his words unknowingly.

Little Mac replied simply, "You too."

"Well then... Shall we begin?"

The tactician known as Robin had a strange personality that Mac found to be quite interesting. Somewhat clingy to topics that interested him, Robin had a childlike spirit of competition, along with a mindset of a genius. If only one method in solving a problem existed, Robin was the kind of person to come up with another method that worked in bizarre ways. In fact, Robin's strategies loosely resembled that of Mac's own strategies on the boxing ring, the only difference being that Robin knew how to make strategies involving a group of people.

A hero of a war was not to be underestimated, no matter what. Robin did eventually explain a little more on who he was, albeit a little reluctantly. The tactician feared that Mac would find the entire tale too confusing to understand, but the boxer simply found his story to be fascinating to listen to.

A war that ended by the one who began it... Robin did fight through something beyond comprehension. Perhaps he had much more wisdom than the boxer did, considering the philosophies that Robin lived up to for the sake of being not just a good tactician, but a good person as well.

Though, Little Mac still failed to understand five-sixth of what Robin just said. What he did know, however, was that Robin had more than what met his eye.

Maybe befriending him during his stay in the tourneys would be a good idea.

Mac lost the first game, then won the second. Meanwhile, Robin was having the time of his life, much to a hidden Lucina's worries.

Little Mac, however, did not know about what he would be facing that midnight...

For that night, something returned.


	7. Good Performance

**. _**

**. . .**

.

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**. _**

**. . .**

**.**

**. _ .**

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. _ _

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_ . _

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/

. . _

. _ _ .

.

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_҉ _  
>͢<br>.͏ ͏_

.̨ ҉.͟ .̷  
>͟<br>̵_̡  
>̀<br>.̛  
>̷<br>.͜ ͢_ .͜

.

.

.

.

.

_͖̞̫̩̭̺̝ ̰̙̰_̝  
>̼͓̙̯̪̹<br>. ̩͖͔̯̲_̤̩̪̥̥̝ͅ

̖̦̖̟̗.̥̣̤͚ͅ ͉̙.̦͉ͅ ͈.͖̗̲͉͖͕͇

̙_̘͚̤̹  
>̭̱̝̟<br>.̖͎  
>͎̥̜̺̫̖̣<br>͍͖.̬̫͈̹̳ _̘̗͓̬ ͉̮̫͇̱͓.͚͉̜̣

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.

.

.

_̱͖̟̲͈͡ ̡̹̪̦_̢͈̞̝͟  
>͍̤́<br>͇͔̠͖̹͞.̟̫̯͖ͅͅ ̭͕͚̝͕͚͈̠̕͜_̷̨̞͠  
>̘͖̱̱<br>̧̲͇̲͓̙̰̠.͓̣͈̮͈͚ ̗̪͉̯.̵̨̲͙̩͔̮̞̟̹ ̗͙̪́͞.͚̼͘͘͝  
>̡͇̪̞̟̼͢͞ͅ<br>̷̳̞̱_͏̴̬͍̯͕̤̮͠  
>҉̰͔̠͉<br>̟̟͉͖̦̻̘̲.͖̭͘͠  
>̱̲͎͓͓̫͙̤̭́͝<br>̭̯͡.̠̰͙̫̥̜̟̬͠͝ ̶̖̦̤̤͙̞̞̺͢_̛̰̱̬̣͖͟͟ ̥̰̗̯͍̕͢͡.̴̨̖̥̯̜̱̝͚͞

...

...

...

_ͭ̌ͥ̄͐̾͑̃͒̃͑̉̈͋̏͠҉̮͚̯̦̥̕ ̴̘͍͕͖̰͍͈̖̪̩̘̺̤̻ͨ̂͑̄̌͢͢_̶̛͍̰̮̠̤̦̊̀͂ͤ̏̆̈́͊̇̊̆ͣ̐͗̃̂͂ͩ̀̀̚͘  
>̡̡̳̱̟̮̪ͯ͐̐ͬ̕͜<br>̴̴̵͍̬̝̤͙̺͖̰͕̅̂̑͌̾ͮ̎ͧ̋.̧̢̨̖̫̜̼ͧ̈́ͮ̆̽͆͆ͬ̈̚̕͝ ̽̓̂ͩͥ̓̎͛̐͋͒̃̂̀̋͆͜͡҉̡̥͍̪͉͇͓̗̰̖̪͟_̢̰̫̪̥̪͉̝ͪ̐ͧͤ̈̓ͣ̄̿̍̆ͬ̌͋͠  
>̶̷̧̱̱̳̻͚̱̼̭͕̤͉̥̫̤̘̥̙ͬ̇ͫ̓̏̈̈̿́̚͢ͅ<br>̷̡̠͎̳̥͉̗̔͛̃̑̅ͤ͒͛̾ͪ̆̂͐̂͌͐͆̇́͘.̨̲̝̩͓̫͚̪͕̱͍̣̓̃̊̓̎͑͋ͯͧ̋̍̊ͧͨ́ ̛̝̫̦͉̣͓̰̹̆ͭ̉̌͛͛̒ͥ̈͌̌͑́ͭ̀̀.̴̵ͭ̋ͫ̉̾̃̇̅͌ͧͧ͒ͩ̇͊͢҉̵̺̹͈̖̟̻̰̪̺̙̺͉͎ ̶̴̢̉͊͑͛͒̎͐̾̉̎͊̉̒̌ͤͦ̂ͪ͠҉̬̖̟͉͍̪.̴̧̩̼̭͙̯͚̣̝̳̩̪͇̑̈̇́͆ͤ̐̏ͮ̈́̃ͧͪͩͭ̑ͣ͘ͅ  
>̧̡̧̮̱̭̹̺̟̫̪͈͈͕͎̪̣̍͗͒̅͋͂̈́̒̍<br>̡̢̖͈̳̘̰͙̝̃ͩ̈́̒͛͗̊̔͗ͫͬ̒ͮ͋̕_̸̧̛̦̙̠̠̱̪̼̘̙̺̻̣͖̤̳̟ͤ̌ͬ̓͝ͅ  
>̹̯̣̼͍̰͈͋̿͊́̕<br>̡͍̳͚̟͖͇͉͇͎͈̳̖̻͌̎̈͋ͨ̊̐.̧̟͓̞̤͎ͪ̌̏ͦͭ͋͋ͪͩ̑̆̉  
>̒ͨ͋̇̃̆̄̂̀ͯͭ͑͊͏̞̥̝̙͔͙͖̺͚͙͕̦̙̲̣̹<br>̴̶̨͖͓͓̲̹̼̽ͯͩ͑̿ͧͦ̾̎́.̸̧̻̥͓͍͍̲̓̎ͯ͋ͭ̃̈́͌̒͂̓̉̀̚̕ ̵̓̿͆ͤ̚̚҉̸͏̪͇̝̗͝_̶̹͓͉͔̫͇̬̳̗̊̄͌̽̔̄̀̀̃̔̉͡ ͎̩͖͓̹̫̟͉̙̰̟͚͈̺̲̮̺̟̰̃̂ͨ́̉͜͞͠.̡̘͍̞̟̰͇̬͚̙̍ͫͥ͗́́

_ͭ̌ͥ̄͐̾͑̃͒̃͑̉̈͋̏͠҉̮͚̯̦̥̕ ̴̘͍͕͖̰͍͈̖̪̩̘̺̤̻ͨ̂͑̄̌͢͢_̶̛͍̰̮̠̤̦̊̀͂ͤ̏̆̈́͊̇̊̆ͣ̐͗̃̂͂ͩ̀̀̚͘  
>̡̡̳̱̟̮̪ͯ͐̐ͬ̕͜<br>̴̴̵͍̬̝̤͙̺͖̰͕̅̂̑͌̾ͮ̎ͧ̋.̧̢̨̖̫̜̼ͧ̈́ͮ̆̽͆͆ͬ̈̚̕͝ ̽̓̂ͩͥ̓̎͛̐͋͒̃̂̀̋͆͜͡҉̡̥͍̪͉͇͓̗̰̖̪͟_̢̰̫̪̥̪͉̝ͪ̐ͧͤ̈̓ͣ̄̿̍̆ͬ̌͋͠  
>̶̷̧̱̱̳̻͚̱̼̭͕̤͉̥̫̤̘̥̙ͬ̇ͫ̓̏̈̈̿́̚͢ͅ<br>̷̡̠͎̳̥͉̗̔͛̃̑̅ͤ͒͛̾ͪ̆̂͐̂͌͐͆̇́͘.̨̲̝̩͓̫͚̪͕̱͍̣̓̃̊̓̎͑͋ͯͧ̋̍̊ͧͨ́ ̛̝̫̦͉̣͓̰̹̆ͭ̉̌͛͛̒ͥ̈͌̌͑́ͭ̀̀.̴̵ͭ̋ͫ̉̾̃̇̅͌ͧͧ͒ͩ̇͊͢҉̵̺̹͈̖̟̻̰̪̺̙̺͉͎ ̶̴̢̉͊͑͛͒̎͐̾̉̎͊̉̒̌ͤͦ̂ͪ͠҉̬̖̟͉͍̪.̴̧̩̼̭͙̯͚̣̝̳̩̪͇̑̈̇́͆ͤ̐̏ͮ̈́̃ͧͪͩͭ̑ͣ͘ͅ  
>̧̡̧̮̱̭̹̺̟̫̪͈͈͕͎̪̣̍͗͒̅͋͂̈́̒̍<br>̡̢̖͈̳̘̰͙̝̃ͩ̈́̒͛͗̊̔͗ͫͬ̒ͮ͋̕_̸̧̛̦̙̠̠̱̪̼̘̙̺̻̣͖̤̳̟ͤ̌ͬ̓͝ͅ  
>̹̯̣̼͍̰͈͋̿͊́̕<br>̡͍̳͚̟͖͇͉͇͎͈̳̖̻͌̎̈͋ͨ̊̐.̧̟͓̞̤͎ͪ̌̏ͦͭ͋͋ͪͩ̑̆̉  
>̒ͨ͋̇̃̆̄̂̀ͯͭ͑͊͏̞̥̝̙͔͙͖̺͚͙͕̦̙̲̣̹<br>̴̶̨͖͓͓̲̹̼̽ͯͩ͑̿ͧͦ̾̎́.̸̧̻̥͓͍͍̲̓̎ͯ͋ͭ̃̈́͌̒͂̓̉̀̚̕ ̵̓̿͆ͤ̚̚҉̸͏̪͇̝̗͝_̶̹͓͉͔̫͇̬̳̗̊̄͌̽̔̄̀̀̃̔̉͡ ͎̩͖͓̹̫̟͉̙̰̟͚͈̺̲̮̺̟̰̃̂ͨ́̉͜͞͠.̡̘͍̞̟̰͇̬͚̙̍ͫͥ͗́́

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.̷̷̧̟̖̤͉̰̙̰͔̮̞̫͔̪̤͔̖̪͋ͫ̔̌͐͋͛̆̍̃͛ͫ̓̕ͅM̧̛̯̫͕̙͖͈̙̦̋͒̄̋̄͊̋ͯͧ͑̅ͧ̈̅ͅ.̢̨̫͓̳̹͚̯̗̪̫̞̬̬̟͇͎͔̌̈ͭ̆͋ͧ̌̐̒͆̿͒̓̆̈́̒͠͠  
>̨̻̜̥̺͛ͬ̉̾̓̓͐͗͢<br>̷̡̅̄͗͐̌ͥͮ̿̍ͥ̊͋̈́̑ͧ̇ͩ͝͏̮͇̭̻̥͉̤̜̝.̵̦̩̲̪͉̩̫̗̏̃̀ͪͭ̃͂̏̌ͪ̓͋ͦ͛̑͂ͫA̫̝͉̗̜̟̳͂ͥͬ̑ͤͩ̌̄ͦ͆ͪͣ̈́ͦ̚͠ͅ.ͥ̒ͬ̄̂̋ͬͯ́ͥ̆͆͑̑ͤ̎͗̓͌͏̸̧̺͎̣̱͈͜  
>̵̭̺̩̲̯̗̩̭̳͖̤̬͓̟̘̙̾̅͆̈́͒͟͟͡<br>̓ͥ̈̓̿̽͗̅ͣ̆͌̿͊͐́͂̿ͩ̚҉҉̢̻̝̮̤̗̦͚͎͟.̨̰͉̮͔̞̟͈͈͇̳͙̳̙̫̠͂͐ͥ̍̏̀͌͊̅̈̑̎ͣ̀S̶̡̙͇͎̙̞̩̟̣͕̙̜͕̗̗̺̤͚̣̽̏ͦ̆̆ͥͯ̃̽̈́͆̕.̞͎̠̟̼͚̻͈̞̗͐̉̾ͮ̿̍ͭͯ̋ͩͯ̔͋͋̇̊ͩ̐ͬ͟͡  
>̢̳͎̻̜̯̳͉̬͚͈̘̯̓ͭ́̒̽͢<br>̄̍̌̐̌͐̒͊͐̆ͣ͟҉̦̤͔̰͕̰̪̤̜̣̬̱͜͟.̴̧̢͓̗͕̣̘̱̲́̌͊̍̽̉ͧ́͠T̔̄̄̈͊͘͟͏͕͙̻̣̼͍̭̦̗̤͟.̿̋̑ͨͮ̆͆̓ͯͫ̇̓͛ͬ̽̃̚҉̵̧͕͔̰͈̰̝̜̳̗̘̬̕͜ͅ  
>̶̢̺̯̝̦͙̰̗̰ͯ̀͂̆̑̎̍ͮ̏ͯ̂ͨ̄ͣ́̉̕͜<br>̵̷̨̖̜͇͖̩̫̘̙̫̬͈̞͌͌̈́̌̏͒̎͒ͦ͗ͤ̉ͣ͆͂̚͠.̴̶̧͎͎̖͇͉̲̯̘͙͓̹̫̲̟̘̮͓̯̏̾ͮͯͣ̈́͑̿ͥ̈́̿ͣ͜E͂̆̂͌̍ͥͦ̀͆ͣ̉ͬ̀҉̷̣̱̱͔̼̪̫͍̖̘͈̀̀͞.̡̹̝͎̪̩͚͇̺̤͈̫͕̯̝͉̆̑ͤͯ̊̐̔̀̿̌  
>̢͉͙͙̰̲̭͈̮͖͎̦̮̻̝̠̼̼̅̔ͣ̾ͪ̀͘<br>ͤ̏ͫ͗̓́͑͛̐̒̚҉̵̸̱̝̹͖͕̩̥͉͕͇̮͓͙́.̵̵̣̲̰̄̋͐̅̄̒̇͐ͬ͊̇͊Rͥͭ͊̒͗͢͞͠҉̯͕͙̥.̢̨̢͉͉̰̦̝̼͎̣̬͎̰̥̖̹̙͕̫̱̜̄̓ͭ́̓̽́̓͆̔͊͗͐̀

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* * *

><p>"?!"<p>

Little Mac found himself looking into a dark ceiling.

"..."

_A nightmare?_

The boxer blinked, fazed by the dream he experienced.

In his dream, a strange orb covered by a variety of dull, yet vibrant colors floated over his vision. It had a large group of faceless people following it, and each and every one of the people had a distorted limb. Then there was the fact that all of the people looked as if they were substances composed of dark ashes...

Strange.

If Little Mac recalled correctly, there was also something far away from the mystical orb, but he turned away from it as soon as he noticed that the thing looked like his own shadow. He did not think of it too much.

A static noise had dominated much of what he heard, but there were several instances where some kind of old device beeped with a surely artificial rhythm. The boxer had no idea as to what it was, as he did not learn of any "codes" of such.

Where did the noises come from, though?

He had no idea.

Getting up from his bed, the boxer lightly tossed aside his blanket. He got off of the comfortable thing before walking out of the room.

Turning on the lights to his living room, Mac immediately went to his kitchen and opened his refrigerator. A note remained pasted over the fridge.

_Now you know I don't see **everything** as chocolate, ya? Ha ha! Make yourself some good stuff, Mac! -Doc Louis_

Much to his surprise, the fridge was filled to the brim. Butter, french bread, milk, eggs, and all sorts of other things that fit nicely in the refrigerator were all present.

Crumb-topped peach pies were something Mac made before back at his life in the Bronx. While the pie itself tasted sweet, however, the peaches Ms. Toadstool gave him were both sweet _and _fresh. Thanks to the kind lady's gifts, Mac enjoyed an extra-tasty delicious breakfast.

Today was a fated day.

* * *

><p>A blonde woman in a blue jumpsuit jogged across the streets right outside of Smashville. The sun had yet to make its debut for the day, but a pale dark-blue world still signified its presence.<p>

The person known as Samus Aran recently set her eyes upon seeking hobbies, mostly due to the fact that the Master Hand found her regularly self-isolating habits to be worrisome. She, by no means, hated being around people; she just developed a habit of keeping every one of her own thoughts to herself. Though she appreciated the glove's good intentions, she did find it somewhat annoying to have him berate her.

Not that the Master Hand was as annoying as Crazy Hand; the crazed glove consistently made weird jokes that were sometimes not even that funny.

She had a Smash tournament to contend in soon, and she had no plans for losing. And even if she lost, she swore that she would not lose without putting up a great presentation of her power.

As she ran, she noticed a person in a pink jumpsuit slowly jogging past her. The person, who looked like a man, was shorter than her, but his legs carried him farther than hers.

Intriguing.

After taking a closer look, Samus remembered the outfit.

Though she did not remember if the man himself wore the outfit on purpose, a man in a pink jumpsuit had become the spotlight in the previous night's news. Wearing two green boxing gloves, he took down four space pirates by himself, the rest of the unseen pirates dealt by Marth, who was on his way from a grocery trip. Apparently, the space pirates planned on taking a large amount of wealth to create an armor-shattering weapon, but the Crazy Hand simply ate all of the money and threw the pirates into a jail cell.

How the freaky thing even ate gold, no one questioned about.

Samus eyed the man in the pink jumpsuit. Space pirates in general were hard to take down if one did not know them well. She wondered if this man was the same person that came out in the television. After all, no one was able to remember his face due to how quickly he left the scene. She found it highly possible that he would eventually show up as a newcomer in the Smash tourneys. Just the power behind his fists already made him a possible contestant.

She eventually turned her attention away from the man in the pink jumpsuit, paying attention to her own jog. The bounty hunter had a feeling that she would be seeing him again very soon.

* * *

><p><em>Several hours later...<em>

* * *

><p>The time finally came.<p>

Nearly every contestant- if not all contestants- remained seated behind a large window. The room they all sat in was as dark as a movie theater, and shaped like one. Why? Ask Crazy Hand.

It was the fated day to see the newcomer to the Smash Bros. Scene, and while some people knew who the newcomer was, no one actually knew what the human from New York possessed for the tournaments. What most of them knew was that the newcomer used to have the occupation of a fully active boxer and defeated extremely abnormal opponents. They heard that he even defeated a magician who utilized magic on the boxing ring.

Alas, without supervision, the Smash contestants proved to be an extremely rowdy bunch.

"Falcon... _**PUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNCH!**_"

"UUUuuuuuuuuuoOO_**OOGHHHHAGHHHH!**_"

"Captain and Ganon are going at it again," the blue-haired, buff mercenary known as Ike shook his head as he turned away from the sight of a Warlock Punch and a Falcon Punch colliding perfectly. Lucario, who sat right next to Captain Falcon and Ganondorf, simply stared at the two fully-grown men fighting each other in the dark area with wide eyes.

Jigglypuff, a balloon-type Pokemon with a puffy, round body, was used as a volleyball by Bowser and Wario, and Mario simply sat still with a composed smile. Beside him sat Peach, who hummed a little tune that she particularly enjoyed. Next to Mario's other side was Luigi, the red plumber's leaner brother. Though nicknamed as "King of Second Bananas" by one of Solid Snake's comrades, the seemingly frightful man clad in green experienced plenty of emotions other than fear. He was just... a little more on the shy side.

The two plumber brothers felt tempted to go stop Bowser and Wario, but the Master Hand was going to-

"_**BRUH.**_"

Everyone stopped what they were doing, turning to look at the only exit in the cramped room.

A large hand floated very still, though unlike Master Hand, it had the shape of a left hand. At this point, everyone understood what the crazed entity would do.

All of a sudden, the Crazy Hand began to move erratically, dropping a bunch of bombs out of its... fingers.

Everybody screamed in unison as the room was filled with explosions. Mario managed to take his F.L.U.D.D. out and sprayed a powerful stream of water at incoming fires, while Luigi kicked away some of the bombs like a soccer player. Link, who literally entered the room right when Crazy Hand did, threw a boomerang at where Zelda was, pushing aside some of the bombs that would soil the dress she wore. Due to the enchantment of wind applied to the boomerang, however, one of the bombs were brought straight up to Link. The Hero of Time simply kicked the bomb at Ganondorf, who seemed to have every bomb kicked towards him (along with Bowser).

Several people found their own ways to protect themselves and their friends, but for the most part, Crazy Hand successfully bombed all of the Smash contestants. Giggling like an idiot, the hand began to make some sort of weird squiggling motions with his fingers.

"HUEHUEHUEHUEHAHAHA," Crazy Hand cackled crazily. "Behold! This is the power of the Mona- er, Monday morning!"

"...What?"

Ike, whose head was stuck within the ceiling, barely pulled himself out and fell on his seat, making Captain Falcon's question more awkward than it would have been.

"...WhateveryeyeyeyeANYWAY... We gahtz not a lahtz of tiemz, so I suggest you to sit like all the ghetto Hylian peoplebye."

Right after the word "bye" left Crazy Hand, the glove suddenly vanished, closing the door in light speed.

This was approximately the thirty-seventh time Crazy Hand visited the Smash contestants just to blow them up. And so far, all thirty seven times have been quite successful.

* * *

><p>Little Mac stood behind an automatic door. Today, Master Hand would inform him of what Doc Louis and he had decided for him, and he would also go through another test. This test, unlike the first test he took, would be recorded for the sake of statistics.<p>

Interestingly enough, the testing ground was located underneath the gigantic dome-shaped stadium. Mac had to pass by more strange creatures and lifeforms. He even tried to say "Hello" to a Dodongo, but nearly turned into a crispy Happy Meal when the creature noticed him. The boxer would make sure not to talk to _chained _creatures.

Mac held his breath. A countdown appeared above the door.

"_Ten seconds."_

The boxer danced on his toes, his gloves brought up to his chest.

"_Nine."_

Phantom punches flew, each punch barely stopping in front of the door.

"_Eight."_

Another sign glowed underneath the countdown. Little Mac looked up, curious as to what it said.

"_Please destroy the door to shorten the countdown."_

"..."

_...That's a strange way of hastening the waiting process._

Little Mac slammed his gloves against each other, his expression tensing up.

"_Seven."_

"_Six."_

"_Five-four-thr-t-o-_"

_**SMASH!**_

The door's hinges broke, and the door flew away. It was made of surprisingly fragile material... at least, fragile enough for Mac to punch away.

A large white room, similar to the one Mac first found himself walking into. His gloves still on his hoodie, Mac slowly walked into the room.

"...! Look!" Mario said quietly with excitement. "Mister Mac has-a arrived!"

Everyone in the hidden theater room quieted down, all of them curious about the man clad in pink. He had actually gained a bit of fame after making an appearance in the news. His name, "Mac," had now become more known to the current contestants in the Smash Bros. Tournaments.

"According to some data R.O.B. kindly provided to us," Mario explained to some of the contestants that still did not know of Mac that well, "Mister Mac came from-a Earth. He is a boxer, and therefore, knows-a boxing! Many of his world's people saw him as an entirely new kind of-a hero, and I agree with them very much!"

"Wait, so he's a human being, right?" A small voice asked Mario behind several voices talking about a different topic. The red-clothed plumber smiled at the boy named Ness.

"That's-a right! And like all people, Mister Mac has-a great passion, from what I've seen and heard. I'll admit, the things I have-a seen when I did my own share of-a research on him surprised me."

Ness tilted his head in confusion, but Mario simply looked back up at to watch the newcomer undergo the mandatory testing procedures.

"You'll know why soon," the plumber said, excited to see the Smash Brothers' new family member show a splendid performance in the test.

Mac did not plan on keeping his hoodie on. Unzipping the hoodie, Mac took a deep breath.

"..."

With great vigor, Mac grabbed the hood of his hoodie, tossing the pink clothes behind him.

Finally, he was going to be properly tested. He decided to take the entire test as seriously as possible. Though there had been some amusing moments during his time in the strange world, he firmly stood by the fact that he should not think about laughing in the middle of a diagnostic performance test that might alter his fate in the tournaments.

Short black hair, a dark, sleeveless athletic shirt, and green boxing pants. Two green boxing gloves, white shoes, and one heck of an muscular build.

"Welcome, 'Little Mac'."

The voice of Master Hand boomed across the room as Mac continued to stretch out his body, listening closely to the directions he was about to be given. All he had to do was follow what the hand wanted him to do, and he would already be doing a decent job.

"This diagnostic test will help us measure your power in the Smash Brothers Tournaments. While you are still qualified to contend in the battles, failure to comply and perform the following tasks may risk your status as a contestant. Please follow all directions given to you with great care."

Mac nodded.

To say that the vast atmosphere did not make him nervous was an outright lie. The boxer was back in the white-blue space, standing on a wide bridge leading up to a large circular platform. Keeping his emotions to himself, the lightweight boxing champion walked across the bridge. For some reason, the thought of aliens flashed within his head every time he heard his footsteps resonate across the void-filled room.

Soon enough, he found himself standing in the middle of the circular platform. Waiting for further instructions, Mac looked around the room, wondering if there were any audiences watching him right at the moment. His attention quickly drew to a familiar glove's voice of authority echoing across the room.

"We will now measure your Standard Power. Please deal a single strike to the target in front of you."

A few seconds after the Master Hand spoke, a floating target pad blipped into existence, much to Mac's surprise. The circular, red-white target floated in front of him, as if waiting for the boxer to punch it.

"Hm?" Luigi asked his brother when the target pad came out. "D-Doesn't Master Hand normally take that target out when newcomers hit the sandbag too hard?"

"...Umm, let's just say that Mister Mac might hit really hard sometimes."

"I dunno about you," Ganondorf, who sat a little behind Mario, "but he doesn't look _that _strong to me. He'd probably have to send the Sandbag thousands of feet away like I could."

Captain Falcon leaned over to Marth and pointed at Ganondorf with a lazy thumb, whispering, "Would you look at that? Mister Century-Year-Old-Evil is comparing himself with a human being."

Though Marth seemed to have a hard time understanding what Captain Falcon was implying, Ganondorf had a particularly bright set of ears. The two of the contestants immediately grabbed each other before flying out of the theater, leaving the rest of the audience to watch Little Mac in peace.

"I wonder how strong he is!" One voice chirped out.

"Maybe he'd send the target far away?" Another chirped in. "Those things are way heavier than they look."

A large turtle monster grumbled as the pair of contestants known as the "Ice Climbers" chirped on, innocently unaware of the auditory damage they dealt to the king known as Bowser.

Little Mac stared at the floating target, clenching a fist with one hand. Gathering his strength, the boxer brought the fist a little underneath his waist. He would need to apply all of his strength to this punch if he wanted to accurately portray his strength.

With that in mind, the boxer grit his teeth as he swung a fist upwards, as if he were slashing a sword with great precision.

The target collided against the fist and, almost instantaneously, shattered into pieces before vanishing from thin air.

"..."

...

...

"...Splendid," was all the Master Hand said as Little Mac returned to waiting for more tests.

"...Splendid my $#%," Captain Falcon commented, pleasantly surprised to find that the newcomer had one heck of a punch underneath his small appearance. "Just what the heck did he box with to get to that level?"

"Enough to contest with us in the tournaments?" Marth said carefully, not wanting to sound rude by using a language he did not use that often.

"You have a point there."

From there on, however, things began to head toward a more serious direction.

"We will now measure the rate of attacks you can deliver within ten seconds. Please deliver as many attacks on the stationary target as you can within those ten seconds."

Little Mac followed the Master Hand's directions carefully. The new target seemed to be stronger than the one he had just managed to shatter, and had a green-white color scheme instead of a red-white one. The boxer threw sixty-seven punches in ten seconds.

"We will now analyze your running speed. Please run to the finish line from where you are as quickly as you can."

Unlike the previous two tests, a new set of platforms floated into Mac's field of vision. The platforms connected themselves and turned into a long bridge.

The boxer felt a little tempted to just walk for the heck of it, but decided not to. Instead, he ran up to the finish line like the Master Hand directed him to. He ran fifty kilometers per hour. A few seconds after Little Mac returned to the platform he had originally been standing on, the Master Hand proceeded to move on to other testing procedures.

"We will now analyze the range of your jumps. Do not prevent yourself from jumping, as failing to participate in this test may risk your status as a contestant. Safety measures have been prepared for your sake."

At this, the boxer wondered why the Master Hand mentioned so many things related to "safety" unlike the other tests he had taken. He decided not to question it any further, watching a floating platform float a little away from the boxer.

"...?"

Walking up to the edge of the circular platform he stood on, Little Mac stared at the platform floating a little away from him. A little reluctant on jumping on the thing, he followed the Master Hand's direction, albeit with a confused expression painted over his face. A second after he jumped on the platform, another platform floated into existence.

_...Don't tell me I'm supposed to keep jumping on these things until I can't?_

Sure enough, he was right. Every platform he jumped onto, a new one popped up. Each new platform was slightly farther from the platforms that appeared before them. After six measly platforms, Little Mac found himself grabbing onto the edge of the seventh platform.

He sucked at jumping far.

After crossing over the eighth platform, Little Mac failed to go to the ninth platform, falling into a trampoline that sort of appeared out of nowhere. The trampoline slowly lifted Mac back up to the circular platform. Feeling less uneasy about the test he just took, the boxer shook his head to keep his attention on the testing procedures that he had yet to encounter.

"We will now move onto the final test."

_...Already?_

Little Mac looked around the vast room as the Master Hand continued,

"The final test is experimental, and varies among the contestants being tested. In your case, Little Mac, the _Cruel Smash _test seems most appropriate."

"Let me explain. _Cruel Smash _is a test that pits you against extremely powerful opponents that scale off of a multiplied version of your power. Once you are knocked out of the platform, like any competitive Super Smash Brothers match, the battle ends. Your goal is to knock off as many of your opponents as you can. All of your opponents will be artificially designed for the purpose of testing you."

Little Mac prepared an offensive stance as the Master Hand began a countdown.

"Three."

"Two."

"One..."

Suddenly, five beams of lights fizzed into existence around the lightweight boxing champion. As the light faded away, five strange figures appeared. Pink wires formed the shapes of human beings, and a strange emblem glowed red on where the faces were supposed to be.

Never did Mac imagine that fighting a bunch of pink wires feel intimidating.

One of the more masculine-looking wireframes charged towards the boxer.

"Begin."

Immediately after the Master Hand initiated the test, the boxer put up a more defensive stance. The wireframe threw its own body towards Mac with a charging football tackle. Getting pushed by the wireframe briefly, the lightweight boxing champion skidded across the ground before coming right back at the strange being, delivering a powerful body blow. The force of the punch sent the wireframe falling over another wireframe that just managed to begin running, but it was not enough to actually send the being off of the platform.

Meanwhile, a feminine wireframe attempted to kick Mac off of the platform with a delicate, yet nasty kick, which Mac succeeded in countering just as he had before. From what he could tell, these wireframes _were _powerful. They packed a punch, and the instant moment Mac got smacked off of the platform, it would all be over.

Hardening his spirit, the lightweight boxing champion ducked and rolled under a wireframe that attempted to smash him with an elbow attack. Two hard punches sent the wireframe tumbling off of the platform.

Much to his own surprise, the wireframe jumped back up onto the platform.

Seeing that two punches were not enough, the boxer attempted to delivering a powerful jab at the wireframe's direction before sensing a presence behind him. Mac swiftly turned around and smashed away an incoming attack dealt by the first wireframe that attempted to get him when the test began. With a mighty punch, he smashed away the wireframe off of the platform, actually managing to cause the attacker to collide against a wall.

_Dodge left, dodge right, duck, duck, duck._

Little Mac found himself playing defensively throughout the test, and, after managing to get fifteen of the wireframes off of the stage, finally got smacked off by one of the feminine wireframes. Right when he spiraled off of the platform, the wireframes disappeared. He landed in a trampoline that prevented him from plummeting down to the middle of nowhere earlier.

_I could have done better _kept on flashing in Little Mac's mind, but he knew he had to keep in mind that he had yet to know whether his performance was a good one or not. There was also the fact that Mac had recently retired from his WVBA career, and only just came back into yet another flashy scene.

For some reason, however, his own faults actually made him more excited for the tournaments. There were things that he did not exactly excel at, which clearly showed up when he went through the jumping test.

He was not perfect. He still _did _have room to improve, and though such things were not related to boxing that much, it did relate well to the competition he planned on entering.

Of course, that did not mean that he would be lazing around not attempting to improve his own condition.

"Well done, Little Mac. This concludes the first part of the mandatory testing procedures. You will fill out some information about yourself on the way out."

* * *

><p><em>Thirty minutes later...<em>

* * *

><p>Little Mac jogged out of the colossal building, a smile indicating that he had little to no time for frowning around the place. There was some sort of feeling growing within him, and it, by no means, was a bad feeling. Good premonitions made Mac a happy boxer.<p>

As the lightweight boxing champion did some sort of happy dance motion with his hands, a familiar voice called out for him.

"Sir Mac!"

The instant moment Mac turned around, the boxer found a Robin with a super wide smile flying towards him.

"_**GOOOOOOOD JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOBBBBBB! **_A splendid performance, I say! By the way, let's play a game of Che-"

"No."

Whether he liked it or not, Mac celebrated his decent(?) performance with Robin by playing a game of Chess.


	8. Fans and Hands

A warm bath, a warm day.

Mac felt quite fuzzy. The relaxing bath made him feel so... strange. While the boxer regularly did not take baths, he just felt like taking it as another way to celebrate his success in entering the Smash Brothers tournaments. And yes, it took him several hours of nervous waiting before he blew up into a happy laugh.

Soon, he would be contending in an entirely different league of gentlemen and ladies. The boxer let his consciousness go faint, as he simply stared off at a wall in front of him. Steam puffed up, and the room became moist.

He had to admit, applying some of the strange soap placed in the bathroom into the bathwater made things feel heavenly. Fortunately for Mac, he had no intentions on passing out any sooner.

Unfortunately for Mac, the instant moment he thought of not passing out, his bath time ended when something outside of the bathroom crashed. Alarmed, the lightweight boxing champion flew out of the tub, opening the door with lightning speed before dashing over to the source of the noise. It took him a while to actually find the source, but to his comfort, the source revealed itself quite quickly.

Robin stared at Little Mac, Lucina by his side. He had accidentally collapsed when Lucina smacked his back for mentioning something weird about her father, Chrom. All of that quickly became irrelevant, however, as the white-haired tactician immediately froze very still.

Lucina, however, did not take the situation well.

"W...W-W-W-...!"

Mac thought to himself, _How could I explain this? _For he knew that there was definitely a solution that could solve the turmoil he literally flew into. The soap covering his body proved to be one of the greatest censorship tools he had unintentionally used to cover up his body. Alas, not everything lasted forever. He needed to hurry up before all of the soap flew away to nothingness.

The lightweight boxing champion had a lightbulb above his head brighten. Pointing at both Robin and Lucina, the boxer straightforwardly ordered them,

"Get in or get out."

"..."

"..."

Whether she used instant teleportation or some sort of shunpo move to turn around instantly, no one knew, but the blue-haired woman ran away as fast as she could, holding onto a very resistant Robin's hand.

As Robin flailed around Lucina screaming about something, Mac simply stared at the retreating pair. As soon as they vanished from his sight, Mac looked at the present box Robin dropped. Walking over to the box, Mac noticed several words etched on a label pasted on the present box.

_To: Sir Macintosh_

_Humbly From: Robin_

The boxer blinked before unwrapping the present box, only to find a brand-new Chess set hiding underneath the wrapper.

"..."

A small grin formed on his face.

* * *

><p>Little Mac put on his pink hoodie, which had been washed once more.<p>

Morning arrived as slowly as counting up to one thousand sheep could take, and Mac found himself jogging outside again.

As of recent days, he noticed that Doc Louis did not show up that often, which forced Mac to deal with a life without the coach for a bit. He knew that Doc still remained both a healthy and chocolate-consuming man. Like anyone else, Doc was a man who had his own business to attend to. Though the big and retired heavyweight champion did not have the same blood Mac had, the lightweight boxing champion treated him like he would have to his father. And from what he knew about himself, Mac loved his family very much.

He did not meet Doc when he first began to box, but he did meet him when he thought about taking boxing a little more seriously. Mac never expected himself to actually go for a long-lasting career that would wipe the floors of the World Video Boxing Association, only to get knocked out of the ring and punch his way back to it. In a sense, he had written a tale that felt far more realistic than many other "rise-to-the-top" stories.

Mac used to fall behind so many boxers with the same goal of rising as the champion in the WVBA, but he accomplished something many others found hard to commit themselves to. He was short, unfit, and had a body not ideal for boxing at all.

He never really gave up, though. And he turned all of his negative qualities into things that pressured him into getting better and better. Perfection did not exist, but the higher he aimed for it, the stronger he became.

Doc Louis showed him just that.

Mac jogged down the streets of the nearby city filled with various species. He, however, did not expect for a little mushroom child to suddenly pop out of nowhere with a notepad in his hands.

"This is so cool!" The small and strangely anthropomorphic mushroom child exclaimed. "You're the 'Neon Vigilante,' right? Can I have your autograph?!"

_Uh; no, dude, _Mac wanted to say. _I never thought about making "Neon Vigilante" my debut title; I'm not Spiderman._

Much to his surprise, another voice- this one more feminine than the child's- exclaimed out of amazement,

"It's him! The Neon Vigilante!"

_I really don't even- ...Why did they even put "Vigilante" next to my name? It's not like I'm wanted by the cops or anything._

_...Right?_

Mac became paranoid for a split second and looked around. The only things he saw were buildings, excited people, and a whole lot of hype rising in the air.

_Uh oh._

The man in the pink jumpsuit found himself standing still in a sea of various species. Though Mac had no idea on what was going on, he had a feeling that it was something related to what he did to the weird, hostile alien creatures back when he visited the bank. With that in mind, the boxer looked around, attempting to find a good route to bail out of.

"Is it true? Is it true that you're going to be contending in the Smash Brothers tournaments?"

"Where do you come from?"

"Do you like aliens? I hope you like aliens! PLEASE LIKE ALIENS, MYSTERIOUS HOODED PERSON!"

"NOTICE ME, PINK HOOD!"

"Ah! He looked at me!"

"Holy crap, these are the times when I need to charge my phone more oft-"

"NOTICE ME!"

Mac inwardly screamed hopelessly, beginning to get confused by the entire situation. Before he punched his way out of the crowd, however, a hand shot out of the crowd, grabbing his arm before pulling it. The boxer felt himself getting pulled out of the sea of bodies, and soon, he felt nothing but the hand grabbing him.

Fresh air sure felt good, especially after a bunch of people tried to snap pictures and touch his hoodie for unspecified reasons that Mac did not want to think about.

Shaking his head to snap himself back to reality, the boxer looked up, his hood slightly covering his eyes. The person who pulled him out of the crowd had a blue jumpsuit on. She had small strands of blonde hair slightly sticking out of the hood placed over her head. The hood covered a fair portion of her facial features like Mac's.

After the woman let go, she fully turned to him and quietly uttered,

"Don't do that again."

"...?"

Mac blinked quizzically, wondering what he did wrong.

"There are... routes you could take if you're just going out for a jog," the woman said, her tone sounding somewhat systematical. "I have seen you jog into crowded places that we contestants should not take for the sake of saving time. Unless you want to get surrounded by swarms of fans every day, you should take routes that go around the central area of the city."

The boxer turned when she pointed at a certain building that stood next to a large sea of water.

"Heading towards that building usually decreases the chance of getting spotted," she said with a stoic look.

It took him several seconds to absorb the information. As soon as he fully comprehended the horror of getting caught in a swarm of screaming fans every day, however, the boxer nodded.

The two hoodie-wearing people stood still. Both of them were accustomed to silence, so unlike the times when Mac remained silent next to Peach, the silence felt natural. Mac turned back to the generous woman that popped out of nowhere and gave her a small wave with one hand.

He then turned away from her, jogging back to the mansion.

The woman known as Samus Aran still found the boxer to be a mysterious individual.

* * *

><p>Right when Mac entered the mansion, he found a strange man standing right in front of the entrance. The man donned a blue pilot suit, a sturdy-looking shoulder pad, bright golden boots, flashy yellow gloves, and a red helmet with a black visor covering his eyes. The eyes appeared to look almost comic-like, as they were shaped like two bright triangles that glowed on the black visor.<p>

"Hello there, Little Mac!" The pilot(?) said with a grin. "Sorry for not introducing you to the mansion earlier; that's actually supposed to be my job, but as of recently, I had to punch this guy out of the window so many times, I forgot about it."

_...So he's the one who did that? _Mac thought as he remembered a traumatizing first-hand experience of watching a Falcon Punch blowing a man out of the mansion. That stuff hit Mac's nervousness harder than an IMAX theater ever would.

The tall, muscular man swiftly raised a hand by his heart, his grin turning into a full-blown smile.

"I am Captain Falcon! F-Zero champion, long and going. And though my motto is 'I am number one,' I actually don't treat good people to ego-filled lectures on why I follow by such a motto in the first place."

Mac nodded.

"I've actually been looking for you because I wanted to inform you of some stuff before your first friendly match!"

"...?"

At this, Mac tilted his head. Perhaps he needed to learn how to use a computer soon.

"Oh, don't worry," Captain Falcon said, lifting his hand away from his chest as he made a carefree gesture, implying that the match itself was not extremely important. "The challenger happened to be someone other than Ganondorf or Bowser, so I figured it would actually be beneficial for you to test the waters of the Smash Brothers tournaments, y'know? By the way, don't trust Ganondorf on anything unless he's high on Triforce soliloquies. You really wouldn't want to get on his bad side if you don't want to get tired every day. ...Though, those soliloquies of his are admittedly hilarious..."

Mac felt like sighing out of relief, but instead, nodded quietly. He initially thought it was some groundbreaking information that would have rocked his world in a terrifying way.

Contrary to his imagination, Captain Falcon actually spoke in a pretty upbeat manner, which made listening to him rather enjoyable. It reminded him of Disco Kid... except the captain had way more "falcon" than "disco" up his sleeves.

"Anyway, you're gonna be fighting _Lucario! _Lucario is a pretty nasty fighter because he gets stronger if you damage him. Dunno about you, but that's something lots of people get super surprised about. I'm actually surprised you're fighting someone of his caliber on your first battle ever, but I guess it's because you're fit enough to beat him!"

"Thing is- oh shoot, I have to go soon...- when you fight Lucario, careful of his Aura-based attacks. If he charges up a ball of Aura and saves it up for later use, always prepare to dodge it in the most crucial of times."

With that said, the captain looked down on his glove, turning away from Mac as he activated some sort of hologram displaying the time before turning the device off.

"I gotta go; Ganondorf usually tries to steal all of the cookies in Ike's jar of sweets at this time around. See ya around, champ!"

For what felt like the fiftieth time, Mac nodded. As Captain Falcon literally jumped up to another floor, Mac finally walked into the mansion.

He felt like the protagonist of a typical JRPG, receiving information on NPCs that pop in to say something either interesting or noteworthy before going back to what they did.

A match with someone who gets stronger as they get weaker...

Super Macho Man? No; Super Macho Man was all about showiness and early knock-outs. All talk, little dignity. Bald Bull? Close, but Bald Bull actually did not get stronger by getting weaker. He only had the ability to maintain his strength while getting pummeled by punches not strong enough to knock him out for good.

Strange.

Then, Mac noticed something to consider.

_He did not tell me **when **to battle with this Lucario person._

...

...

...

...

...

"..."

Mac forced himself to think that everything he just listened to and thought of was no longer any of his business until the challenger itself appears before him. He hated to admit that he failed to ask absolutely important questions sometimes.

* * *

><p>The WVBA champion entered the cafeteria, feeling hungry after a day of light training.<p>

A day of hard work meant a good day to consume food. Mac lightly jogged his way into the place, his pink hoodie still over his head. Though he usually did not care about what he ate, the cafeteria actually made him consider on eating between two foods: hamburgers or sandwiches.

On one hand, the tasty hamburger seemed like a great choice for Mac. A classic taste that suited him quite well, Mac enjoyed the taste of mostly sweet sauce usually accompanying most hamburgers. It left behind a good after-taste, too.

Sandwiches, on the other hand, definitely left no memory-jolting after-tastes, but in return, provided fresh packs of food. As much as Doc Louis hated taking diets from chocolate, he once treated himself to a whole day eating vegetables by eating plentiful amounts of sandwiches. When Doc's movements actually became quicker after several more days of his sandwich diet, Mac felt inspired and proceeded to treat himself to consuming tons of sandwiches.

...Of course, there was a limit as to how many sandwiches Mac could take before the entire diet began to backfire on him, but he knew better than to think linearly. The point was that Mac fully knew that foods could affect one's performance in a battle. King Hippo could have taught as much, but the particular sandwich diet seemed to enforce that.

Mac stared at the two food menus before heading directly to the sandwiches.

Soon, the boxer found himself carrying a tray loaded with four sandwiches.

On his way to one of the empty tables, the boxer noticed a... particularly pale woman sitting in a disturbingly healthy sitting pose. She stared at him from afar as if to look into his soul. Deeming her to be threatening for his appetite, Mac quickly turned away and sat at a table, unaware of the fact that she tried to give him a thumbs-up for not falling for the Dark Side of enjoying delicacies.

The boxer sat down and began his lonely, yet strangely happy feast.

He chowed down the food with great speed, mostly due to how he wanted to immediately get back to jogging.

As he consumed his second sandwich, however, a familiar voice nearly made him drop his food and punch the nearest thing around him as hard as he could.

"So **interesting! **You eat with such speed, yet you never seem to stop to take a break while you're eating!"

Mac glared at Robin in a way that made the tactician laugh.

"Sorry about that! I just felt like I couldn't miss the chance, you see."

"..."

The boxer nodded, cautiously looking at Robin before chewing on his sandwiches.

"Soooooooooooooo, how about we have another Chess match tonight? You play Chess with strange strategies even I have not thought of before. I could certainly learn more from you, and perhaps, if I am good enough, I could teach you some of my own strategies!"

At this point, the lightweight boxing champion gave up on prying the white-haired man away from himself. Robin tried so hard to get on his good side, so neglecting his efforts made the Bruiser from the Bronx feel like a terrible person. The tactician just had some sort of innocence that made him feel easy to get along with, despite the fact that he was an acclaimed war hero. Everyone felt different from the typical human beings found on Earth.

Then again, there was a bounty hunter who could punch a burly man out of a mansion through brute force. And even Mac himself punched some random alien through the roof of a building, so who the heck was he to talk to?

Mac nodded at Robin, causing the white-haired man to smile brightly.

"Oh, and sorry about barging into your dorm when you were preoccupied. I wanted to deliver a message to you humbly, but... a friend of mine sort of smashed me into your room. Ah ha! Maybe to make up for you, I could make you a coconut pie-"

"_**BRUH.**_"

The boxer jumped, turning to a voice that had gained infamy among many Smash contestants. Before him was Master Ha- no, a hand that looked like Master Hand. This hand, however, was shaped like that of a left hand rather than a right hand.

"I love my pies."

"...I did not see you there, Crazy Hand."

Twitching erratically, the left hand asked the lightweight boxing champion,

"You know what tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime it issssssssss?"

Mac shook his head.

Suddenly, the hand grabbed Mac with two of its fingers before shaking the boxer like crazy before screaming,

"IT'S **SHAKEY SHAKEY SHAKEY TI-**"

Needless to say, Mac instantly Star Punched the white glove off of him, bolting out of the cafeteria to save himself.

"..."

"..."

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

"...You had that coming," Robin pointed out to the hand that now lay twitching on the ground. The psychotically hyperactive hand known as Crazy Hand continued to twitch.

"Worth."

Right after he responded to Robin, the hand suddenly rolled over the unfortunate tactician, moving straight out of the mansion to go find something else to bother. Crazy Hand enjoyed bothering everything around him, but had the attention span of a five-year old child that was introduced to Call of Duty at the age of three.

Another uneventful day passed just like that. The next day, Little Mac, the Bruiser from the Bronx, would finally go head-to-toe with a certain challenge he completely forgot about.

* * *

><p><em>Intermission 1<em>

* * *

><p><em>...<em>

_..._

_..._

_..._

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_..._

_..._

_..._

_..._

_..._

_..._

_..H.._

_..._

_..._

_..._

_..._

_..._

_..._

_..._

_..._

_..._

_..._

_..e.._

_..._

_..._

_..._

_...H...e..._

_...o..._

_..._

_..._

_..._

_..._

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_..._

_..._

_..._

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_..._

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_..._

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_..._

_..._

_..._

_...P...l...e...s..._

_..._

_..._

_..._

_..._

_..._

_...C...a...n..._

_..._

_...h...e...r..._

_..._

_..._

_..._

_..._

_...l...e...s...e..._

_...h...e...d..._

_...y..._

_...c..._a̴̡͓̺͉͓̮͉̲̳̟̠͖ͩ͛̈́ͬ̌̂̓̏͝ͅ.̊̓̇͑͑́͒̋̊͗̀̃̂̂̆̎̈́̓҉̧͉͎̲̰̤́.̡̞̣͓͈͍̔͗̿ͦͬ͂̑ͬ͛͗͛̃͢͠.̴̡̛̜̭̻̙͍͉̠̱͈͕̺͙̱͋ͯ͋ͫ̉ͮͫͩ̇̓̌̇͢ͅl͖̱͕̲̘̠͎ͯ̿͒̍ͪ̑̈̒ͨ͂̈̉͐ͯ̾ͭ̈͒͐͠.̸̥̬͕̦̭̣ͤ͗ͣ͂̃ͤ̐͒̌͛̊ͮ͜͠͠͠.̶̖̩̙̞̤͔̰̟̪͒̐ͣ̾̌̓͑̐̕͟.̵̞̪̮͔͂ͤ́͌ͨ͑̊̉͗ͧ̇̊̀̐ͩͮ̃̚͟͡l̸̴̪̟̩̪̟̞ͮ̇ͭ̀͢.̵̨̗͇̲̥̞̗̝̦̗̼͖̦̼̺̟̹͇̤ͬ̋ͤ͒͗͛ͣͣ̽̃.̓͐̑͊ͫ͊͏̵̢̛͉̼͕̭̹͖̲̙̗̭̭̙̀.̡́̍ͯ́̔ͧ̽͌̓̅҉̶̵̵̙̜̙̙͔͕͕̗̭̥͕̩̖

_...P...l...e...s..._

_._

_._

.̢̢̧̧͖̰̭̖͎̺ͯ̂̿̽͌̀.̧̓͐ͬ̋́҉̘͙̬̳̝͙͍̲̣͈.̵̡͚̠̞̱̦̘̙̹̻̖̔ͬͤ͌̓̔̓̔̈́̓ͯ̉̓͆̇̐ͯ͒ͅP̘̞̰͔̝͍̦͚̦̙͔͍ͩ͑ͣ̋̃ͪ̆͊͑ͨ̂̄͒ͯͪͥ́ͪ̂͡͡.̢̛̟̪̲͉̹̹̱̦̜̺͍̮̄͋̇ͮ̈́͋̍͂̋ͨ̐̓̌͌́͠.̶̛̛̛͙̥̟̝͋͌ͭͦ̀̔̓ͩͭ̽̏ͨ̌ͤ̎ͮ̐.̡̧͉̣̩̩̹̤̮̺́̋ͣ̍̐ͪ̈ͦ̒̽ĺ̢̤̺̙͚̰͈̜͊̏̿ͥͥ͊͝.̷̨̭͖͔̬̮͚̮̰̲̬̹͛̄͋ͨ̑̑̾͛ͩ̈̎̂ͭ͊̈ͫ́̀͘.̢̈́̏̌ͪ̒̎̀͠҉̼̫̯̱̲̞̟͍̫͎̰.̓̾̂ͯ̌ͬ̚͏̣͉̜̻͖̹̖̟̪̤̖̩͝ë͇͉͇͖̞̞͂͊͌̊ͨͨ̍̀̓̌̽̒̃̆̓̀̚̚͘͜.̃̂́̄̆ͨ̃͋̿ͪ̓͒̚͏̢̛̛͚̰̳̗̖͙̮͓͚̮̙̱̗͢ͅ.̨͇̦̲̳̟̘̯̳͚̜ͯ̽ͩ̐̽̏͋̎ͥ͋ͧ̌̃̏͘.̴̡͈̞͚͓̪̼̥͖̱̝̟̯̩̰̥̝͗͐ͩ͑̂̾́̏͆ͫâ̶̄̓̒̓̎ͥ̎̀ͧͥ̌͏̛͎̯͔̪̼̝̯̬͙͉̘̬͖̰̗̪̞.̷̧̨̡̮͈̥͈̺̤͈̖͓̙̞̮̦͇͔͈̖͚͌̉ͪ̽͊͂͂ͫͯ̏̾̿̄̽͂ͯ͡.̸̡̭͍͇͖̥ͣ͋̂͋̒ͦ̌̑̽̆̾̏̑͌͝.̴̢̛̥͚̟̤̻̞͖̦̣͈̪̱̹̪̇̐̒̄͆͐̍̀̐́̚͠s̶̛͍̦͓̤̞̯̠͈̣͎̼̔̒̄͑ͮ̌̿ͫ̚̕͘ͅ.̶̇̄̀͐ͮ̈̌̄͊ͦ͆ͯ͋͞҉̷̩̯͕͜ͅ.̓̊͆͌͗ͬ̄̊̎͗̓ͭͥ́ͣͪ҉̸̵͔͍̝̳.̡̛̛̮̝̹̲͙̙̤̞̪͉̞̥͇̦͚̣̃̄́͒̓̄̂ͯ̃ͨ͊͘ͅê̶̬̬̳̝̖̽ͤ͐͟͜.̷̵͚̘̫̗̠̯͙̥̞̭ͥͨ̿ͭ̀͘.̠̭̖͚̝͉̯͚̖̮̘̣̮̯̮̗̗͙͈̐̉̌͗ͦͤ̓͗́͞.̵̡̲͔͕͔͓͓̟̺̃̑͆̏̂̽̍ͬͮͤ̓̒̅ͨ̿ͦ̂

...


	9. Forgetful Mac

Crazy Hand typed rapidly on his keyboard. On the wall behind him was a poster that featured Crazy Hand typing on his keyboard, which also had a poster behind the fictional version of Crazy Hand. Due to how annoyingly bright the back of his screen shined, one would immediately be greeted by a beautifully bright light if the visitor did not look away from the laptop's lid.

His room's only source of light came from his computer. Everything else remained within darkness. As the hand continued to mash buttons furiously, Crazy Hand realized something. Abruptly stopping his typing, he quickly punched in more keys before sending the document he had been working on to his pimped out printer, which became green due to how it was literally a printer made of copper sitting right behind a random water fountain the hand stole from a criminal. Stealception happened to be Crazy Hand's specialty... sort of.

Actually, his real specialty lay in destroying everything without giving a single crap about the world. Master Hand just happened to somehow make a deal with the freaky being of destruction. The secret rested within using creativity to catch Crazy Hand's attention. Ideas such as playing tic-tac-toe with pancakes on nine frying heated frying pans usually worked whenever someone needed to negotiate with the left hand. Alas, no one knew of this particular weakness the maniacal hand possessed.

After printing out a single sheet of paper out, the left hand immediately bolted out of its office.

"OH, _**HUEHUEHUE**_. My _**BRUH**_ will finally realize the intellectual genius hiding within my digiti manus! UH _HE **HAHAHAHAHAHUEHAHA!**_"

* * *

><p>Mac performed jumping jacks in the mansion's gymnasium. Holding onto one-hundred pound weights, the boxer exercised vigorously, counting all the way to three hundred jumping jacks in a single run.<p>

The day felt like a regular day, for he did not have anything to do until his first battle arrived. That said, he felt like he was missing out on something... important. However, Doc himself did not seem to mention anything about any important events he had to prepare for the day. All he needed to do was keep training for his first match.

Of course, the lightweight boxing champion swung the dumb bells quite easily, considering how strong his attacks needed to be against his opponents to make up for his generally small stature.

The WVBA champion took a deep breath, feeling quite satisfied with his jumping jack activity. Though it was not enough by itself, it greatly helped Mac keep his shoulders strong and sturdy, as well as his biceps.

_...What do I do now? _Mac thought to himself, looking around the gymnasium.

His eyes fell upon a running machine.

In a few minutes, he found himself running on the machine.

The running machine functioned in an interesting fashion. Running faster made the running machine go faster, while slowing down made the machine slow down as well. Mac also had the option to manually change the speed of the running machine, though he found the default mode to be fun to play around with. He felt like an astronaut for some reason.

A little while after the boxer manually configured the running machine's speed, Mac decided to take a break from exercising. He remembered what Doc Louis said about getting used to every part of the mansion. If Mac spent all of his time in the gymnasium, he would probably be less accustomed to the mansion for a longer period of time. He found getting used to the mansion take a surprisingly long amount of time.

And so, he left the gym, exploring the mansion a little more. Unbeknownst to him, something began to follow him.

As he began to move around the mansion, Mac could not help but remember how his feet were not capable of generating sparkly noises every time he walked. Almost right after he began to explore the place to surely remember his new surroundings, the boxer quickly realized that he was being followed, though he had no idea on just what he was getting followed by.

It could not be human if it made sparkly noises, right?

Actually, the lightweight boxing champion considered it to be completely possible due to the world he was in.

By the time he fully traversed through and visually captured some of the places he remembered going through before, the boxer found himself getting extremely disturbed by the strange sparkly noises emitting behind him. Turning around to see just what was following him, Little Mac looked up with the most blank look he could muster up.

He found nothing in front of him. Strange. He swore he heard a bunch of sparkly noi-

Suddenly, a strange sound came beneath him. Looking down, Mac saw... a fat star. To put it with more details, a round and cuddly star-shaped creature looked up at him. The thing was about as tall as his socks, and Mac's socks were certainly not as long as thigh-highs. Glowing a strange, yellow light, the star stared at him with two googly black eyes.

The boxer raised an eyebrow, wondering what to do with the mobile midget-sized package of light that seemed persistent with following him.

"Sir Mac!"

The voice of Robin immediately gave Mac an idea. Whether it was a good or bad idea, he did not know... or care.

"Sir Mac!" Robin said as he walked out of the laundromat room Mac stood in front of. The tactician did not have his own laundry machine unlike Little Mac, and that seemed to be the case for many other contestants as well. "Ah, what a good time to see you! I wanted to give you this coconut pie."

Mac turned to Robin. Indeed, a coconut pie sat within a transparent box the white-haired man held. Robin seemed extremely happy to make the pie for Mac, though the boxer really wanted to ask him what he was doing with a coconut pie inside a laundromat.

"Hm? Is that, by chance, a Luma?" Robin asked curiously, looking up at the boxer then at the star-shaped creature.

He had no idea, so the boxer shrugged without any hesitation. "Not mine," he pointed out straightforwardly.

"Did Rosalina let you walk one of them around?"

"..."

"Did you just happen to find one outside?"

"..."

"Do you know what a Luma is?"

"..."

"...Do you know what I'm talking about?"

Mac shook his head.

And all Robin thought from this was,

_He's... so **INTERESTING! **_

Needless to say, the shine behind Robin's eyes gave Mac a familiar premonition he had come to get used to. As the tactician stood still, his eyes shining stars, Mac quietly took the box containing the coconut pie, kindly bowing to him out of respect, before walking out of the hallway he entered as quickly as he could. The boxer walked so quickly, the Luma(?) had a hard time catching up.

Soon, the lightweight boxing champion found himself standing within his dormitory again.

And all he wanted was a tour around the mansion...

Mac sighed. He did not hate Robin. He had to consistently remind himself that in order to prevent himself from getting confused. It was just the innocent intentions that Robin held that disturbed Mac so much. After all, it took time getting used to people other than Doc Louis that were honest.

A squeak came out from the Luma that followed him down.

"..."

The boxer shook his head, simply putting the coconut pie box on a table within the living room. He then proceeded to pick up the Luma and walked out of his dormitory.

After he was sure that Robin did not happen to follow him down, of course.

* * *

><p>Robin did <em>not <em>follow him, which allowed Mac to walk around with the star-shaped creature in his arms. The Luma was cuddly and soft, making physical contact it actually feel nice. Not that he intended on keeping it to himself; as soon as he found out who it belonged to, he would give it back.

Mac happened to meet Mario on his quest to return the Luma back to where it was, and the red plumber was kind enough to inform Mac of a place known as the Observatory. The Observatory was not that far from the mansion, but instead of taking the usual route to the city, Mac had to find it by entering the gigantic back yard it had. After ten minutes of walking down a flowery road, the boxer found something massive that he did not see before.

There was a huge composition of buildings floating in front of the lightweight boxing champion. Blinking at the sight of the Observatory never ceasing to remain still in the air, Mac quickly readjusted his fallen jaw to make himself look less idiotic, clutching the Luma a little tighter than before. He hoped to get used to floating platforms as quickly as possible.

Thankfully for the boxer, a flight of stairs led up to the floating Observatory. Mac did not feel confident in jumping all the way up to the buildings like some sort of flexible blob. Even the stairs made him feel intimidated, for each step were technically separate platforms that floated on their own. After walking up the flight of stairs as quickly as he could, the lightweight boxing champion finally found himself standing on the place known as the Observatory.

A place where one could view the stars, the Observatory felt expansive. A large, pointy building lay snugly at the center of the futuristic composition of buildings. There were several other small buildings that lay around it on a platform shaped like a ring. Mac felt like he was exercising his back when he looked up at the tip of the object at the center of the Observatory.

Well... if Lumas belonged to the Observatory, then he concluded that they knew where to go to meet their owner. Mac slowly put down the Luma he had been carrying, which squeaked once he let the plush creature touch the ground. A few seconds after standing still, the tiny thing began to walk before leaping over several escalating steps that led to what looked like a library. It soon disappeared after walking into the wooden building.

Though Mac felt tempted to step on the carpet-covered grounds surrounding the library building, he decided to quickly make his leave. With that in mind, he quickly took the flight of stairs again. He soon jogged away from the Observatory, feeling somewhat satisfied with putting the Luma back to where it was.

Unbeknownst to him, a person carrying the Luma he just returned watched him leave.

* * *

><p>As soon as Mac returned to the mansion, he met Master Hand. The hand seemed to be waiting for him at the lobby, as he immediately turned to Mac with a delighted tone present in his voice.<p>

"Ah! I have been looking for you-"

"_**BRUH.**_"

"...And so has my tenacious, psychotic partner, Crazy Hand."

As Master Hand had described him, Crazy Hand twitched erratically at the sight of Mac entering the mansion. Now the left hand did not have to deal with one of his dreaded weaknesses: _waiting. _In fact, Crazy Hand seemed so happy to see Mac, he immediately began to spin himself around in a single position, making him look like some broken music box. Mac gave Crazy Hand a weird look before turning to Master Hand.

"All new contestants always have an obligatory battle with us, you see!" Master Hand explained, clenching into a fist to describe what kind of battle he was talking about. "In other words, all contestants begin their Smash careers by facing me... and as of recently, Crazy Hand."

"..."

Mac nodded, glancing at Crazy Hand, who was still spinning around in place, before looking back at Master Hand.

"When do we start?" Mac asked.

The Master Hand loosened his fist, turning back to its idle stance, before answering the boxer,

"In thirty minutes, of course!"

Mac internally screamed as he finally remembered the "important thing" of that day.

* * *

><p><span><strong>Author's Notes<strong>

**I'm surprised to see the positive feedback I received for this story! Feedback is always appreciated (criticisms are also welcomed). :D**


	10. The Return of the Champion

The hype engine roared, and the cheers of the audiences intensified.

"Whhhhhhhhaaaaaa_aaaaaAAA**AAAAAAT'S**_ **UP,** LADS 'N LADIES! IT'S _**SMASHING **__TIME!_" A loud voice boomed across the coliseum of an arena.

Everyone began to scream louder, joyously awaiting a particular match many had been looking forward to. The match had been long overdue, but much to their relief, what was to come had finally come.

"Everyone!" One of the hosts exclaimed with exuberance. "I thank you for coming to watch the first Smash Brothers match featuring our latest newcomer! While there's no need to know my name, I would like to refer to our guest announcers for the day! Please welcome Falco Lombardi and Mewtwo!"

As if on cue, Falco Lombardi, group member of the bounty-hunting organization known as Star Fox, jumped in. "'Ey! I'm the fan-favorite Falco, according to at least a million people out there. Glad to be here."

"…Hm," Mewtwo said in the most unenthusiastic fashion ever, causing a bunch of people to get hyped for him for absolutely no justified reason at all.

"So, Falco!" The host exclaimed with excitement present in his voice. "Today, our newcomer is going to be in a special match with the creators of the Smash Bros tournaments! What will he be going against exactly?"

Falco straightened his uniform, dusting off some random dustball that managed to stick itself on the clothes.

"Well, if you ask me, the Hands- yes, Master Hand and Crazy Hand- are one heck of a combo. Moreso than the Ice Climbers, obviously. The Hands got way more moves than Jaegar, so the newbie's gonna have to get ready in recognizing their random pattern of attacks."

"How random would it be, Mr. Lombardi?" The host asked amidst the cheers of the crowds.

"It could get more random than a Youtube Poop, and that's seriously saying something considering how creative people could get with those things. And by creative, I mean by creative in an unoriginal, yet somehow effective way. Both of them are mighty strong on their own, but once the Hands start working together, it goes DOWN from there."

"Sounds legit! Mewtwo, what are your thoughts on our newcomer?"

"**I'm going to kill all of your loved ones.**"

"Thank you for your insight, Mewtwo!" The host said enthusiastically. "The match should be starting very soon! Stay tuned to the Smash Brothers Network."

* * *

><p>Some things felt familiar to Mac.<p>

He could hear the cries of excitement roaring above him. The tension, the scene, the gloves: not everything seemed different as he thought it would be. The scale of everything he encountered, however, was far greater than that of the boxing scene's.

Everything he achieved so far felt weak compared to what lied above. No, the boxers at the WVBA were certainly no slouches, but there was something that ultimately set apart the boxers and the Smash Brothers fighters. Something about watching others fight each other in the universal tournaments felt different from the boxing circuits he climbed his way through.

Being a world champion was hard not only to his physical condition, but also to his mind. The World Video Boxing Association taught him well, for he remembered how weary he had become with facing the same boxers that wanted to put him down over and over and over again. Perhaps the Smash Brothers were different due to how many people _like him_ were gathered up in one place. He was no champion here, and he was not even sure if he could become a champion in the first place. In a sense, he only carried a single weapon; his past.

Mac was not an ordinary boxer anymore. He kept on reminding himself that, yet it felt so strange. One day, he would be unable to lift a forty pound dumbbell for more than forty seconds. The next month, Mac found himself carrying hundred pound dumbbells. Now he had to do jumping jacks _with _the dumbbells to sufficiently work out.

The fact that simple strength was not a key factor in winning the Smash Brothers tournaments. Perhaps it was the idea of _facing people like him _that excited him. The scene he would soon box in would not just make Mac rely on tactics that could be used over and over again. People thought hard like he did in order to win the Smash battles. Robin, for instance, was a tactician. As a tactician, he needed to set up good strategies against a slew of opponents that could change their fighting styles as well. The tournaments required brain power to great extents, and lacking such brain power would ultimately put one at a disadvantage.

Would the tournaments really grant Mac a place he could finally fight in with satisfaction?

Who knew. Maybe Doc Louis and his wonderful chocolate bar analogies would rough him up for a reality check; and Mac hoped that reality check would show results that please him.

Light crept into the large, dark waiting room he had been waiting in. The time to fully show his face to this strange world had finally come.

The ground, which was actually a platform, slowly rose from the darkness. Light spread its brightness upon Mac like a virus. He felt his heart accelerate, his eyes growing wide as he braced himself for what was to come.

As he rose, he heard an announcer speak, a microphone apparently causing his voice to echo throughout the entire stadium.

"Stinging like a bee and biting like a mosquito! Hailing all the way from Planet Earth to yours truly, he boasts the power of fighting with an innate strength that cannot be compared to a mere atom bomb!"

Mac clutched onto his hoodie, taking a deep breath.

_Show 'em what you got, Mac baby!_

The boxer closed his eyes.

"From New York, the _Bruiser from the Bronx_ has decided to join the competition! Recently proclaimed as a new hero, he has come for attention… and attention he will get starting from today!"

_You got this, Mac. You got it all figured out!_

Mac breathed in.

_Hit 'em baby!_

_Shake it out, son!_

Mac breathed out.

The platform fully rose out of one of the lower walls of the stadium. As the platform started to move diagonally, Mac clutched his hoodie tighter. The cheers of so many people… It overwhelmed him, yet it did not faze him.

Now truly might have been a good time to return to what he loved doing.

"He is no giant, but he is no pushover! He is the **champion** of the World Video Boxing Association! He is…"

Time ticked by so slowly, and the boxer felt his nervousness creeping up his entire body. Whether he could control his emotions, he did not know. He began to worry on how he would perform in his first match.

_World's waiting for you, kid!_

But he had no time to worry about trivial matters, anymore.

The platform moved towards a somewhat intimidating battlefield. It was flat; flat like a boxing ring. As he quickly ran off the platform, jumping towards the platform like a dare-devil hot on its heels, Mac finally realized what he was experiencing.

The champion spirit within him had awakened once more.

"**LITTLE MAC!**"

Mac threw his jumpsuit off, stylishly letting the pink clothes fly towards the platform he had once been standing on before he jumped onto the battlefield known as Final Destination. Now standing in the center of the stage, the boxer watched the crowds go wild. Much to his pleasant surprise, a fair share of the audience carried pink or green signs that had "Neon Vigilante!" and other silly titles given to him.

A dark undershirt, green boxer shorts with orange-white lines decorating its sides, and his memorable green boxing gloves: the three pieces of equipment defined what Mac was.

As soon as Mac made several jabs at the air, he saw Master Hand and Crazy Hand fall from the open skies. His surroundings became darker, and soon enough, Mac's environment changed to that of empty space. The Final Destination glowed in the dark as stars slowly began to appear around him.

This was it. Only he and the Hands were present on the battlefield.

"Take a load of that outstanding introduction!" The Host yelled, impressed by the reaction to Little Mac appearing. "Mr. Lombardi, what does Little Mac have to offer?"

"Two things: power and speed. I never saw anyone as fast as that guy for real. He can't jump well, but it's stuff like what he has that makes me want to stay in the air all the time."

"I see!" The Host said, turning to Mewtwo. "Any of your thoughts, Mr. Mewtwo?"

"**I will consume the entire world with destruction and death.**"

"Thank you for the helpful insight, Mewtwo!"

Mac took one last breath before finally charging forward. Doc Louis told him everything he needed to know about this battle.

_To beat Master Hand and Crazy Hand, you gotta beat 'em senseless cause you won't be sending any of the Hands flying, son! They'll probably try to get you off the stage as much as possible after roughing you up, so always make sure to dodge! Dodge, dodge, and always, ALWAYS make sure to punch them as hard as you can from the ground!_

Mac instantly dodged a massive bullet Master Hand shot out of nowhere. Unlike most of the fighters he would be facing, he needed to deplete the Hands' Stamina. Hitting them enough would eventually defeat them, but the question was how much he had to hit them. A fight that dragged on certainly was no problem for Mac himself, but he needed to beat them quickly before the Hands themselves began to recognize his attack patterns and defensive reflexes.

The boxer saw the left hand make some sort of jet motion before flying off of the stage. He turned to his left, only to see the large hand going straight for him. The hand planned on ramming into him, apparently.

As he prepared to roll out of the way, however, he saw Master Hand rising over the platform. The right hand was clenched into a fist.

Before he rolled back, Mac instead rolled forward, barely dodging an airplane and an explosive fist that crashed into the Final Destination. He soon saw the Master Hand return back to where he was.

_Now._

Right when the foe began to recover, Mac sent an uppercut at the Master Hand, causing the hand's fingers to twitch briefly. He did some damage! It, however, was obviously not enough. As the boxer looked behind him to see what the Crazy Hand was doing, Master Hand began to "walk" across the Final Destination with two fingers. Mac found himself colliding against one of the fingers, which sent him flying towards the left hand.

Crazy Hand grabbed the boxer in the middle of his flight. Clenching tightly, the hand attempted to squeeze the lightweight boxing champion like a bottle of ketchup. Mac made a comeback by smashing away the hand's fingers, causing the left hand to scream like a little girl just because he was forced to let go.

"It's on! They're going at it with equal power, people! And our newcomer remains calm even at some dangerous moments that have appeared early on in the battle!"

"But that ain't Falco!" Falco said, attaching a little bit of ego to the statement. "On another note, if he really does stay in the air, he's gonna be in for a whoopin'."

"Indeed! What do you think, Mewtwo?"

"**This world must die.**"

"Good."

Mac landed on the ground, dashing straight towards the Master Hand again. The Master Hand, who flew straight up, attempted to punch Mac from the side, only to have the boxer roll out of harm's way.

"Stop trying to punch the reader; you're gonna hurt their feelings!" Crazy Hand yelled at the Master Hand.

"…What?"

"Nothin'. Hey, Mac; _I'd shower you with coconut cream pies._"

As if on cue, the left hand flew over Mac before dropping an armada of explosives at the boxer. Mac leapt out of the way, rolling several times before delivering yet another uppercut at the hand.

As the Crazy Hand talked to himself about "expanding dongs," Master Hand suddenly took out a glowing square about his size.

"Crazy Hand," he said calmly. "It's paper time."

"Shut up, mom."

As if throwing papers was the hardest thing one could accomplish in life, Crazy Hand and Master Hand began to throw the squares onto the Final Destination. Each square rose into the air… straight into the dreaded danger zone. Mac witnessed several people getting knocked out of the stage by simply being kicked into the skies on the television as of recent days. He did his own share of research; enough to know that the squares would lead to him getting defeated.

The lightweight boxing champion daringly jumped off of a series of squares. Each flight of squares made him near the danger zone, much to the crowds' tension. But each time he landed on a square, he wasted no time in escaping the attack of flying squares. He soon found his feet touching the ground again.

After the sheets were sent towards him, Crazy Hand seemed to take interest in flattening Mac, for he rose over Mac's head, clenched tightly in a fist. Master Hand began to fire lasers at his fingertips, so Mac decided to use the preoccupied right hand to his advantage. Focused on the left hand, the boxer readied himself.

Crazy Hand suddenly stretched his fingers out before slamming himself against Final Destination. Mac actually let the left hand hit him, for he proceeded to directly smash one of the hand's fingers before clenching his unused hand tightly. Charging up an attack, Mac delivered a forward punch, slightly knocking the hand off of Final Destination.

"**_OWOWOWOWOW_** MOM GET THE CAMERA," Crazy Hand screamed as he retreated to the side of Final Destination.

The right hand responded nicely to the left hand for once, for he attempted to deliver revenge on a steaming hot dish. Turning into a drill, Master Hand drove itself onto the surface of Final Destination, spinning around with great speed. Mac rolled back, barely avoiding the drill. Making high risks for a higher reward, Mac began to deliver a spree of punches at the right hand that attempted to thrash out of the ground to recover. Ending the combo with a hook, the boxer flew straight up into the air, spinning as he attacked Master Hand from below.

"A stunning counter-attack! It seems that Mac attack patterns are far too random for the Hands to directly control. Is this a one-sided battle?!"

"Not really, actually," Falco butted in. "A few hits off of the stage and it's all over for that boxer. In a sense, he's really hanging onto the edge of the battle because he has only one safe zone, which is the stage itself. He's doing really great against opponents that usually send people flying, though!"

"Interesting! Any thoughts on this, Mewtwo?"

"**I smell death.**"

"Thank you for your thoughtful input, Mewtwo!"

Master Hand backed away from the boxer before preparing to fire more bullets. After rolling away from yet another airplane attack delivered by Crazy Hand, Mac sent two- no, _three _charged punches straight at the left hand, dealing a great amount of damage. Crazy Hand shook himself, quickly shrugging off all forms of pain before attempting to grab Mac again.

The boxer dropped himself, letting his back touch the ground. Right after he dodged the grab, he slammed himself back up before punching the left hand right across his middle finger.

"**GRRRRRRR,**" the hand of destruction growled before beginning to flail his fingers about. "MASTER HAND! LET'S **DO** THIS! IT'S **HAM** TIME!"

"Oh boy!" The host exclaimed as he noticed just what Crazy Hand had in mind. "This one's going to be something Little Mac _must _avoid!"

"He'd be stupid if he doesn't roll out of this one," Falco agreed. "That thing put a fair amount of our newcomers to shame."

Whatever the Hands had in mind, Mac had to avoid. Suddenly, he saw Master Hand wagging one of his fingers at Crazy Hand, who clenched himself more tightly than ever. For some reason, the boxer had a feeling that he knew what they were about to do. Dodging might have been an acceptable decision, but thinking back to his boxing career, Mac thought about an interesting alternative to simply dodging an attack.

As soon as he thought about his decision, Crazy Hand flew backwards, clenched tightly into a balled fist. Time slowed down as Mac brought back his own fist. It seemed like a perfect time to go for a Total Knock Out. The giant fist flew towards Mac with great speed, and Mac himself began to swing his own fist toward the incoming hand.

The lightweight boxing champion had no idea that his fist just caught on fire due to the sheer speed and power he swung his fist at Crazy Hand. The Star Punch had never looked so strong before.

The two forces collided, and everyone became dead silent as Mac and Crazy Hand crashed into each other, both of them using their own attacks. Crazy Hand himself seemed dumbfounded at the sight of Mac delivering an uppercut that dealt so much damage, even he found it to be confound.

"_**GRAGHGHHHGRHGHHHHRHGHHHHAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!**_"

Everyone roared out of amazement as Mac sent Crazy Hand flying out of the stage. As several flashy explosions indicated that the Hand had been defeated, Mac turned to Master Hand, who immediately proceeded to fire more bullets at the boxer. Zipping past each bullet, the lightweight boxing champion approached the lone Hand that remained.

"And there he goes!" The host exclaimed as the crowd went wild. "Defeating Crazy Hand in a fabulous stand-off, Little Mac now faces Master Hand! He has so much strength behind his punches, it's not even funny!"

"But can he handstand when he needs to and stretch his arms out just for you?"

"You suck at references, Mr. Lombardi!"

"Say goodbye to your loved ones."

"Good feedback, Mewtwo!"

Mac prepared to charge up another punch to hit Master Hand with. The right hand, however, suddenly backed off.

_What the…?_

Twitching erratically, Master Hand suddenly formed a sword composed of… black dust?

_What's… _Master Hand thought as he attempted to regain control of his body. _What's going on?!_

The boxer backed away from the Hand, fully on-guard.

"Urgh," the white hand barely managed to grumble before swinging the dark sword at the boxer.

"What the…?!"

Falco glared at the sword Master Hand had suddenly summoned. For some reason, it looked familiar… Its presence felt dark, though the crowd seemed to speculate that it was simply a new attack invented to spice things up.

Even Mewtwo seemed interested in the sword.

Raising his gloves closer to himself, Mac rolled away as he dodged the strange attack. The sword burst into a stream of b͏̯͙̟̝̗ḻ̫͕̥̺̣͜a͓͙͚͓͔͉c̞̻̣̗͝ḳ̵͍͎̙ ̖du̠s̢̮̩͙̜̦̬̼t͠, which Mac f̵̫̪͕̻̤̹̱̠͉o̸̵̝̙̖͜u̘̫͚̪̕n̨̤̗̣̗͠ḑ̛͇̺̞̻͈̲͎͡ ͉͙̼̬̤̰̀h̸̫̳̱͉͎̱͚̬͎́i̯̰̩̖̹m̸̧̰̤̗s̛̤̳̯͕e̕͞͏̻̘̤̗͓ͅḷ̡̩̗f̪͇͞ getting surrounded and caught u̷̷̡̬̫͉̫͔͇̰͕̇͋̋̿̉̄͆̐̂̒͋̇̎͢͠p͛̔͋ͮ̊ͫ͑̈́̃͊҉͉̣̗̲̝̮̙̞͙͎̠̯̞͞ ̿̌͋̓̏̒̈́ͥ̃͛ͧ҉̸̧̨̭͉̹͔i̎ͨ͊̔͂͌̎ͥ͂̈́҉҉͙͉͖̣́n̷̨̗͔̟̬͕̙̆ͭ͑ͯ̐̐̉͊̉ͬ̕͟-

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I̶̘̬̩̯̻̣̖ͬ̏̈́͗͋̂̽͌̀̕ ̨̻̞̲̬͖̲͈͔̩̺̳͕̋̎̎̌͆̍̾ͯ̇͐͌ͣ̇́ͭͮ̀͟͜͠H̪̭͔̼̩̘͕͍̫͓̠̲̩ͭ̏ͮ̊ͥ́͟ͅẠ̷̵̷̫̪͖̹͈͔̰̲̫̠̟̳͙͖̞̦͉̪̾̃ͪ̒̍͗͒̓̊̆̽ͭ̀͐ͣ͟͠V̐̓͆̄̆͂͐̊̔̋ͩ̉͂͑ͫ͊҉̨͓͕̱̩͇̼͈E͑ͯ̅̓͑͏͍̻͖̱̩̟̘̝́͡ ̸̵ͮ̋̿ͨͧ̃ͥ͐̌́̑̃̍ͥͣ͗͏̹͚͍̦̭W̶̶ͤ́̌̄͗͊ͧ͟҉͓͉̣̳̙̜͉͞A̧͉̳̻̖̰̫͎̰͇͚̖͙̙͇͐͂̏͒͌ͭ̌͐̊̈́̓͒̓̀͢Ì̴̷̲̤̪̮ͦ̐̓͝T̷̺̱̥͔̮̼̟͇̳̃̐̆͒̊̓̈́͌̐̒̋ͥ̔̀̚ͅE̶̟̥̤̜͖ͨ̾̏̋̇̌ͪ͆̂̔̒̋̃͜͝͝Dͣͩ͊̂̍̽̔ͣ̋̍̓ͦ͋͘҉͕͖̮̥̲̫̠̥̲̳̖̳̩͝͠  
>̘̝̪̦͇̻́ͭͭ̏̂̌͌ͬ̒ͪͣ͆̽̊́͞.̧̜͍̹̹͎̥̳̘͍͙̤̪͖̥̙͍̝̓ͥ̉̈̓̌̓̆ͭͪ͌̉ͯ̈̚͞.̙͉͙̩̮̫̗̬̬̎͋̋̇̋ͪ̆̌̂ͩ̌ͩ͊ͪ́͟͟͡ͅ.̧͉͚͓͍̰̦͔̘͚͙̮̤̯̘͖̽̋͗̾͑͋͘͝͡L̨̨̡̩̬̼̭̪̦̎ͬ͌̄͘ͅǪ̵̷̩͕̝͐͊̒ͦ̏ͧͨ͟͞Ņ̛̭͇̦͕̻̖͙̠̫̹͍̤̗̥̱̙̇ͦ͂͗ͨ̓̂͂̾̀ͅḠ̨̘͙͍̲̮͇̖̱̗̒̉ͭ̔̉̓͆̒͌ͧͫ̋ͤͣ͞.̧̧̥̮̣̲͎̫̹ͦͫͪͣ͂ͣ͊ͧͥͪ͑͋͆̽ͩ͢.̧̮̙̪̲̤̻̩̮̰̳͙̫̙ͮ͒̂̐́͗̿̈́ͯ̓ͯ̕͟͢͞ͅͅ.̵̧̜͕̠̰̱̥̥̳̤̻̻̗̬̱̼̈̓̈́̏͂̓́̇ͦͮ̏ͮ͐̎͝͠l̹͓̭̖͇̬̑͆͆͋ͪ̔̏ͧ̐̾̉̓͐ͣ͗ͫ́͝o͊ͯ͂̓͊̎͡͝҉̺̮̪̦̪͇̮̖̯͔̘̹͓n̷͉̣͍̪͙͎̬̤͓̮͖͆̑͂ͮ̽̀̋̽ͬͫ̔ͮͫ̉̏͑̓͑̃͘ğ̶̢ͣ̏̄ͨ̄̈́̓ͤ̌̎ͣ͜҉̤͎̙͚̙͎̹̻̜̥͎̯̖.̸̸͍͕͕̹̦̦̞̺̼̳̙͙̘̹͉́̐̇͛̈́͂ͨ̔̉͆͑ͯ̄.̧̡̆̋͐͊͐̆ͦ͌̍̎ͥͬ̈ͥ͂̔ͭ͒͜҉̙͇̗̬̱͉̟̰͈͍.ͥ̆̂̆̏̈́̊͛̈́̕͏͏̨̝͖̲͍̫̪͈̀ͅa̢ͭ̆ͭͯ̓̈́́̅̈̀̇͊͞͏̮͖̜̦̼̪̮̗̲̜̪̀͘g̵̼̱̙̝͈̳̲͇̪̟͙̱͔̗̜͉̤ͭ͆͊ͨͨ̋ͥ̒ͨ̄ͪ͟͠o̴̝̮̻̝̽ͯ͗ͭͫ̓̓ͪ̊̌̓ͬ̃̽ͤ̅̂̔̀́̚͞͡.̧̛̟̻͉̗̟͖͙̩̰͓̋̄̊ͬͪ̎̑̑ͭ͗ͬͧͧ̿̋͜͞.̷̷͖̗͕̱̱̫̆̆̽͋̚̚͟.͇̟̗̤̯͉̯̞̫̭͙̇̂͆͂͐̀́̈͂̈́ͩ̐̂̆ͬ̚̚͝ͅͅ<p>

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><p>The boxer woke back up, quickly swinging his gloves at the dust that surrounded him.<p>

_A hallucination attack? _Mac thought, confused by what he just heard. _That… was weird._

Still trusting Master Hand, the boxer raised his fists once more, prepared to fend himself off against the hand. Master Hand seemed to return back to his normal patterns, as he began to "walk" across Final Destination. Out of surprise, the lightweight boxing champion quickly began to charge up a punch.

Two seconds later, his punch connected directly with the Hand, causing Master Hand to cry out in pain before retreating.

He had defeated Master Hand and Crazy Hand in his first Smash battle.

"The winner is… **LITTLE MAC!**"

Everyone cheered, and Little Mac looked around him, watching his surroundings return back to normal. The smiles of many showered praises at the newest member among the Smash Brothers.

With innocent intentions, Mac smiled back, striking the air with one boxing glove.

A victory was, after all, a victory. And victories meant chocolate bars.

Lots of chocolate bars.

But not everyone thought of celebrating Mac's victory immediately. There were people like Robin who found the intentions behind Master Hand's blade attack strange and disturbing. Glaring at his dormitory's television (which only had the Smash Brothers Network channel on it), Robin, for some reason, felt curious.

Because clearly, the black sword Master Hand tried to strike Little Mac with had a dangerous amount of killing intent in him. Robin dared not to think of it too much, for there were too many theories that could stem from the single action alone.

_Whatever it is, _Robin thought as he turned off the television, _I hope it never shows up again._


	11. Innocent Invitation!

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><p>Mac huffed as he put down the dumbbells he curled with, carefully putting the heavy weights back to where they were.<p>

With his first match roughly finished, the lightweight boxing champion found himself training harder. Doc Louis gave him a whole set of exercises for several days, letting the boxer know that he was finally going to get in the game. His coach also provided several old video tapes that Master Hand recommended for Mac to watch. The tapes contained old Smash Brothers battles, some of them showing grand moments of awesomeness. Some tapes apparently contained useful information centered on the mistakes of the contestants in their previous matches.

But Doc cared too much about Mac. In fact, the man held a surprise party for Mac's showy victory right when the boxer left the arena. Chocolate, sweets, and several other delights that the boxer never tasted before were treated to him, and many of his fans were there to congratulate him. Ironically, Mac felt tired more from the party rather than the actual battle! But who was he to stop Doc Louis from being his usual, cheery self?

"_Y'see," Doc Louis told some children that were curious about Mac's previous achievements, "Mac ain't a quitter. When he quits something, it's for good reasons, or it's because he's done his job and is totally through with it. Y'know he's a boxer, 'ight? Not exactly! He's a __**CHAMP! **__And as a champ, he knows how to be a boxer. Why? Cause he never quit being a boxer! Simple, eh? Ha ha ha!"_

The dark-haired boxer remembered the shine that entered behind the childrens' eyes. Partying at a _park _out of all places guaranteed that Doc would have been able to provide inspirational talks with Mac's greedily curious fans. He still remembered how many people entered the party, and boy, it was a nightmarish memory.

A small smirk was all Mac could offer to the upbeat memory.

The boxer took his flip phone out, silently checking the time before putting the device away.

His quiet demeanor eventually led him out of the gymnasium. Donning a pink jumpsuit, Mac immediately proceeded to take a jog.

Instead of going straight into the city, Mac went to the route recommended by the blonde woman he met outside of the mansion not too long ago. Time crept by as the lightweight boxing champion ran down a peaceful road.

* * *

><p>By the time Little Mac returned to the mansion, he felt a bit thirsty for water. Opening the front door, Mac took three steps into the building before hearing an explosion erupt throughout the entire place.<p>

Yet another abnormal trait of the mansion that Mac had gotten used to… Perhaps one of the downsides of living in the mansion was that Mac found himself being unable to give sufficient amounts of craps for things that used to feel too dangerous for him. Sure, he did mind the condition of the mansion, but he had already realized that the mansion always seemed to stand without falling apart like a frail jenga tower no matter how much the contestants shook it.

Mac took three more steps into the building, only to find Lucina walking straight up to him. Where she came from, the boxer knew nothing of.

"Good day, Sir Mac," she said with respect in her tone. "'Tis a fine day to take a walk, I say."

Nodding at the woman, the boxer walked on, causing the blue-haired swordsman to follow him. The two walked in silence, with Lucina struggling on coming up with good conversations.

"…"

"…Ah! I forgot to tell you; congratulations on your first victory. You showed a splendid performance."

Another brief moment of silence fell over the conversation.

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"…Thanks."

"Huh?"

Little Mac turned to Lucina, a very small grin presented from him. Blinking at the boxer, the swordswoman nodded, startled by how she brought out a verbal response from him. Her expression then turned gloomy, though Mac was oblivious to this.

"…Sir Mac?"

"…?"

"I… actually looked for you because there was a question I had."

"…"

"P-Pardon me if I'm intruding too much! It's for your sake, so… I would like it if you answered me honestly."

Curiosity grew within Mac as he turned to Lucina. He never actually thought about having Lucina ask a question for _his _sake rather than _Robin's_.

Biting the bottom of her lip, the blue-haired swordswoman mustered up her courage before asking the boxer,

"Did you… feel strange in that match?"

"…"

Mac saw Lucina's eyes piercing through him. It seemed that she was not playing around with him, judging by how seriously she looked at him. Or it could be another one of her strange quirks, but Mac was not careless enough to disregard anyone who made themselves to be strange. She seemed genuinely worried about something, though the boxer was unable to decipher the strange emotion he felt from her.

Then there was also that strange mark on her eye… though, Mac decided to think about that later.

"Strange?" Mac asked the swordswoman.

"Yes. For example, when Master Hand brought out that sword, did you feel any strange emotions? Emotions such as… fear, or maybe even dread, for example."

Fear?

Dread?

Strange… emotions…?

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><p>Fear…<p>

Dread…

Strange… emotions.

Did he feel any strange emotions? What could possibly make him feel any stranger other than fighting two giant hands on a flat platform?

Did he feel fear? Yes, and he had grown used to it.

Did he feel dread? No, because he was already used to fear. He had no time to feel down about his own life or anything.

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><p>Mac shook his head.<p>

"I felt nervous," he said straightforwardly. "But when I won, I stopped feeling nervous."

"When did you start feeling this nervousness?" Lucina pressed on.

"Since the beginning of the match."

"And did any certain attacks make you feel something more than just nervousness?"

"…"

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><p>_,_ ._ … _ . ._.<p>

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><p>"I…"<p>

Mac blinked. He wondered and pondered beyond the yonder of his long train of thoughts. Was there anything that actually frightened him? Something that made one of the Hands feel intimidating?

Crazy Hand took the entire battle carelessly, so the left hand let out a carefree aura even when he was losing. Mac actually enjoyed figuring out the sporadic hand's abilities, as the Hand understood that the match itself was not a serious one.

Master Hand, on the other hand…

…He had to admit, something was a little strange.

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><p>_,_ ._ … _ . ._.<p>

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><p>"I was just surprised," Mac admitted, "when Master Hand took out a sword. But…"<p>

"…But…?"

The boxer looked back at Lucina, honesty resting behind his eyes and words.

"I never fought him before. I think I just felt taken by surprise because I never saw him attack until that match."

"Are you positive, Sir Mac? You do not need to hide anything from me," Lucina stated.

Was something wrong? Mac never saw the blue-haired girl with such serious eyes before. There was nothing humorous about her stance. All he saw was a worried person.

He wondered… if he really was the cause of her worry, then should _he _not be the one to ease the worry? Lucina did point out that she was asking for his sake, after all. Mac did not want to be too rude to the woman when she wanted to tell him something out of genuine concern. Sure, he did ignore her when she tried to "save" Robin, but that was an entirely different situation that made no sense.

Right now, he needed to be honest. And he was being honest.

The boxer smiled before poking the bridge of the woman's nose.

"…?! H-Huh…?!"

As quiet as ever, Mac slowly began to walk again, waving at the petrified blue-haired woman. Still confused on what he meant by the poke, Lucina touched her nose repeatedly.

Then, just like that, she returned back to being the Lucina he knew of quite well.

"**_HE GOT MY NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSE!_**"

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><p><em>The next day…<em>

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><p>Ganondorf snapped a potato chip in half and ate it.<p>

"That was one of the most pointless sights I have ever seen in my life," Captain Falcon commented as he continued to eat his lasagna. The captain and the King of Evil were dining at the cafeteria. Just recently, the installed a public television that could be used for all of the Smash contestants. It made things convenient, considering how no one seemed to leave their own dormitories due to how they had everything inside the rooms anyway.

"If you have a problem, get on my good side," Ganondorf replied before making a thoughtful look. "Wait- I don't have a good side…"

"Yeah, you're not good. You suck."

The King of Evil swung a fist at Captain Falcon's head. Quick to react, the captain abruptly raised a hand and caught the fist, holding it tightly as the two men attempted to win in an imminent power struggle.

"Did you know?" Ganondorf asked through clenched teeth. "I'm too good for the Smash Brothers tournaments, I told Master Hand and Crazy Hand that I'll just be using _your _moves!"

"Oh yeah?" Captain Falcon responded, a grin forming by instinct. "Well, show me _your _moves, Gondalapig!"

"**GONDALAPIG?!**"

"YES! **GONDALAPIG!** YOU FLY LIKE A PIG, TOO! HAHAHAHAHA-"

"URGHHH_HHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA__**AAAAAAAAGHHHHH!**_ YOU'RE GONNA DIE TODAY, YOU _VIEWTIFUL J*E RIP-OFF!_"

"**COME ON!**"

And thus, the two entered yet another battle. As they fought, Zelda shook her head at the violent sight to behold. Sitting with her was Samus Aran, Peach, and the yellow mouse Pokemon, Pikachu.

"They're at it again," the princess of Hyrule commented. "I dearly hope that they would not destroy the cafeteria droids. Those things are well-made."

"I just hope no one gets hurt!" Peach spoke softly, recalling a painful moment she witnessed in the lobby of the mansion. "They should just settle it in Smash instead of settling it inside the mansion…"

Zelda put up a thoughtful look before commenting, "They _are _technically settling it in Smash. Well, _with _Smash. They're just not doing it in an actual Smash battle, which really could hurt people sometimes."

"I do not think even Mister Mewtwo caused this much… destruction… when he got angry."

"…Well, see, Peach, Mewtwo is actually decent because he tended to fix whatever he broke. Meanwhile, our fan-favorites over there leave the fixing all up to the plumbers, the Hands, or even Bowser."

Peach nodded, watching Captain Falcon and Ganondorf duke it out worriedly. Samus, who wore her blue jumpsuit, remained silent as the Pikachu next to her sat snugly in her lap. Finishing her soup without dropping anything weird on the Pokemon, the bounty hunter looked up, raising an eyebrow at how the two men already destroyed a table.

Then she saw someone familiar enter the cafeteria.

"Hm?" Peach tilted her head. "Is that Mister Mac?"

"_**LITTLE MAC?!**_" Captain Falcon and Ganondorf screamed in unison, their heads darting around as they hungrily searched for the boxer. "_**MAC **__**WHERE**__**?!**_"

Suddenly, Captain Falcon sent a Falcon Punch at Ganondorf's direction. The King of Evil rolled away before leaping over to the F-Zero pilot, swinging an overhead punch at where the pilot's head was. Backflipping away to safety, Captain Falcon landed on his feet, forming a grin right below the helmet he wore. The ground that Ganondorf punched now had a tiny crater formed under where he struck.

"You told me you weren't interested in his fighting prowess, Ganon."

"Let's just say he broke some of my expectations," Ganondorf growled, his eyes glowing yellow, "Falcon."

Little Mac stared at the two competitors throwing a Warlock Punch and a Falcon Punch at each other, causing a massive amount of wind to blow across the room. His face completely devoid of emotions, the boxer stood still as the two fights continued to battle in the cafeteria.

"_I wonder if it's too late to go home now" _summed his feelings up in a nutshell.

Deciding to ignore the strangely epic battle between the two contestants, Little Mac picked up a tray and took a quick look at the menu. He then proceeded to receive some mushroom soup and a strange, blue-colored jelly he had already tasted before. Collecting a water bottle for his drink, Mac strolled off to the lobby.

Peach smiled before getting up from the table.

"I will be accompanying Mister Mac if he does not mind!" The princess said. "I have been thinking about inviting him to our little party."

"Really?" Zelda asked, her tone suggesting that she was unsure of inviting a muscular boxer into a party filled with tea and elegance.

"Really! Don't worry, Princess Zelda. Mister Mac is a good person!"

"…I wouldn't have worried if he didn't O.H.K.O. Crazy Hand, you know."

Fluttering like a flower, Peach walked gracefully, passing by the two fighters duking it out in the cafeteria. Ganondorf swung a leg at Captain Falcon's head, but the F-Zero pilot was swift enough to punch it away from Peach's direction before twisting his body to the opposite direction. Jumping in place, Captain Falcon delivered two spinning kicks on Ganondorf's head before landing on the ground, turning one last time to kick away the King of Evil.

"That would have hurt if your attacks weren't like that of a rat's," Ganondorf smirked, unfazed by the swift attacks Captain Falcon sent at him.

Captain Falcon smirked back, motioning Ganondorf to come at him.

"Rats can spread plagues, Ganon; and I'm spreading the plague of '_kick your a__**#%**__._'"

As the two continued to fight, Zelda decided to follow Peach for her safety's sake. Samus picked Pikachu up before following Zelda, completely ignoring the battle with the most bored look bounty hunters could come up with.

* * *

><p>A golden crown popped out of the corner of a wall. Then, a tiara, a blue hoodie, and two black pointy ears popped out as well.<p>

The four watched Little Mac put down the food he collected. Reaching for his pocket, the boxer took out what appeared to be a flip phone.

"Is that… a flip phone?" Zelda asked, somewhat baffled by the reveal of Mac's phone. "They do not sell those phones in this world, from what I have heard."

"The phones we use are flat," Samus pointed out. "Perhaps he comes from a less advanced world, or he just did not care about having a good phone in the first place."

"I see!" Peach chirped, albeit quietly.

The lightweight boxing champion punched in several buttons before putting the phone on the same table he placed his food on. Sitting down on one of the comfortable sofas, the man in the pink jumpsuit picked up his bowl of soup, eating all of it within fifteen seconds before moving onto the blue jelly. Though he did not seem to like it that much, Mac consumed the jelly within seconds as well.

"Holy…"

Zelda stopped herself from finishing the statement to retain her reputation as a princess.

Mac looked up at the flip phone before pressing a button, drinking his water after he did so. A few seconds later, his phone began to emit a series of messages.

"_You have. Two. Messages._"

"'_Ey, Mac baby! I'm right now at this huge, HUGE cave that you might fight in later! Anyway, a couple o' things 'fore I hang up! First things first, you're going to officially begin your first tournament match once the on-going tournament ends soon, so be ready! Y' got at least two weeks before you could join in the tournament!"_

"_Tell ya what; if you do a hundred-thousand pushups and a couple other 'hundred-thousand' exercises, you'll be all right! Ha ha! No, but son, don't kill yourself. I'm telling ya, you should push your limits, but remember not to go too far! Don't be too full of yourself, either. Y' gotta keep that balance, Mac. Y' gotta work it hard, but don't waste your energy too much right before the tournaments start! Stay in top condition, champ; you can do it!"_

"_So far, the stages you're going to fight in are really diverse, so I'll gather as much info as I could before telling ya what's up ahead. Also, you miiiiiiiiight wanna work on your jumps, buddy. Master Hand said he'd do something about how you can't jump in the air like everyone else, but for now, just keep working on those jumps. You're no air fighter, Mac, so try to find a way to recover from the air if you do get hit!"_

"_Also, I noticed you're gettin' pretty close to the peeps over there. Good job, Mac! You're probably gonna get a great friend that you can rely on, soon. Pretty sure you're gonna get more than one friend, but hey, it ain't too bad for me to worry 'bout you, right? Then again, maybe you're gonna try sparring the heck outta whoever befriends you. Ha ha ha!"_

Mac smirked as he drank from his bottle again.

"_And Mac; I heard some of the ladies there are pretty. Don't get too attached to 'em, or y'might run into some problems when you're fighting, y' hearin' me?"_

The boxer abruptly swallowed the water he just drank, nearly choking himself. He coughed, flushed by the sudden statement Doc Louis added in.

"_Just kiddin', son! Ha ha ha! Oh man, I'm starting to sound like my old pops. Don't feel worried about what relationships ya make with people over there. All sorts of friends and rivals; you meet them anywhere, and you're going to make them all the time. The thing you need to pay attention on is how truthful the friendship and rivalry goes. Got it, Mac?"_

"_I'ma hang up, now. I'll call back later!"_

"_*beep*"_

"_This is Snake. Colonel, where the crap did you put my video games at?! I swear to G- OH SH__**#%**__, WRONG NUMBER-"_

"_End of messages."_

Mac raised an eyebrow at the last particular message before snatching the phone off of the desk. He proceeded to continue drinking water.

"Hello!"

At the sound of a high-pitched voice Mac desperately needed to hear, the boxer turned around to find Peach walking up to him with a smile.

The lightweight boxing champion had to admit that meeting Peach was like meeting an angel. And by angel, he meant that she felt like one whenever Mac was visited by her after he went through a series of unfortunate events in the mansion. She did not become paranoid and start to accuse Mac of stealing Robin away from her, and she did not seem to hate him. All she wanted to give was a smile and appreciation, which Mac could never return the favor for due to how pure she was.

"Hello, Mister Mac," she repeated as she bowed politely, causing the boxer to bow in response. "Good job on your first match! You were awesome."

Scratching the back of his head, Mac bowed a little, thanking her silently.

"I was wondering if you could join me in a party. It's a small party, but if it goes against your schedule, then I could…"

Shaking his head, the boxer quietly told her,

"I can go."

And it was true. Mac had plenty of time in his hands. In fact, if he had nothing to do other than training, then he would become the literal representation of repetition. He did not want to be repetitive in that kind of way. A small part of him did want to get along with the people around him, despite the fact that he had an anti-social nature in general.

Peach's smile turned into a brighter one.

"Then it's settled! We will be having the party a few hours from now. Around… the ninth hour, I'd say!"

Mac nodded.

He did not know what kind of catastrophe he brought himself into, but for some reason, he just could not say no to the same person that treated him so nicely.


	12. Party of Two

When Mac woke up at the day of the party, he took a warm, long shower. Apple pie served its duty as Mac's breakfast quite well. And finally, the boxer wore something other than his pink jumpsuit and his boxing outfit. Donning jeans, a gray t-shirt and a dark hoodie, the lightweight boxing champion wore more casual clothes for once. After all, the entire ordeal with him being connected to the title "Neon Vigilante" made him self-aware of the clothes he wore. What confused him was how no one minded Mac wearing a pink hoodie in the first place back at New York, and how everyone went bonkers about it at the Smash Brothers world.

Walking out of his dormitory, the lightweight boxing champion led himself to the lobby. From what he heard, Peach's dormitory was located on the second floor of the mansion. His blank expression remained still as he moved up to the second floor through a light flight of stairs.

The boxer found himself looking through a hallway filled with dormitories. He blinked as he read through the nameplates for each dorm, hopeful in reaching Peach without going through some sort of random hellhole generated by someone like Ganondorf. Fate decided to give him a break, and the lightweight boxing champion quickly found the place he looked for.

Knocking on the door, Mac stood still, putting his hands in his hoodie's pockets. Silence prevailed for the first few seconds, but he soon found the door opening for him. A blonde and peachy woman peeked through the small opening between her door and the wall. She then opened the door wider, waving at Mac with a smile.

"Hello, Mister Mac!"

He simply smiled back, bowing his head briefly.

Peach donned the dress Mac always saw her in. So far, the man did not know how she looked like in clothes other than dresses. Thinking it was something pointless to think over about, the lightweight boxing champion discarded the thought, paying more attention on the reason as to why he went upstairs.

"When's the party?" Mac asked.

Whether it was the fact that Mac smiled as he asked a question or he wore different clothes for once, Peach seemed somewhat surprised. She then made a knowing laugh before bowing to him apologetically.

"We're planning on starting around when dinnertime comes. There's still time before it begins, you know!"

The boxer nodded several times.

"Mister Mac," Peach asked with a question of her own, "are you going to go jog outside?"

It was Mac's turn to feel surprised, as he instinctively raised an eyebrow at the question. He then nodded, pointing with a thumb at nothing in particular.

"…Would you like to jog with me?"

Peach blinked.

Mac grinned awkwardly.

The two began to stifle a quiet chorus of laughter. Peach felt pleasantly taken aback at the boxer's offer, while Mac felt baffled on how abrupt and unnatural his invitation felt. He did feel, however, that spending some time with Peach would help soothe his mind. She was a kind and bright person, and that was enough for him to enjoy her company.

"I'd love to!" Peach answered as the two stopped laughing at the hallway.

That day, Little Mac's jog felt lighter than most of his usual jogs. He and Peach shared several conversations, most of them related to Mac's personal experiences at the new world and Peach's thoughts on what the next tournament would be like. Overall, the jog with Peach felt satisfying to Mac.

* * *

><p>When Mac came back from the jog and parted ways from Peach for the time being, he confronted someone he did not expect to meet early in the morning.<p>

"'Ey, Mac!" Doc Louis said, a chocolate bar in his hands. "And here I was wondering where you went. Ha ha ha!"

Little Mac smiled as Doc Louis walked up to him. He did not see Doc's face for a particularly lengthy time. There were only a few moments where they briefly shared a few words before doing what they had to do. Little Mac's first battle at Smash Brothers, for example, was one of such circumstances.

"So, Mac baby! I actually got a surprise training method that I brought up just for you. I'm sure you might remember what it is once you see it."

A surprise training method? The words "surprise" and "training" did not seem to go well together, but when Doc Louis mixed them up, Mac felt convinced that Doc brewed up something good. And since Mac's options for training in unique patterns were dwindling, a new method _did _sound plentifully fitting for his situation.

Doc led Mac to the gymnasium as the coach asked what life at the mansion was like. Little Mac initially felt baffled when he realized he did not know of a certain term that could describe the place and its inhabitants. On one hand, there were good people like Peach, Mario, and Robin. On the other hand, there were psychotically weird people such as Ganondorf, Captain Falcon, and… Robin.

It seemed that Mac had some sort of complex situation involving a recently obsessive tactician.

Now, Captain Falcon was, by no means, a bad person. His violent, yet humorous rivalry with Ganondorf, however, was what made him one of "those people" on Mac's list. Being on Mac's "those people" list was not something to be proud of.

So, Mac told him that mansion was stupidly diverse. Doc sort of understood how the boxer came up with such a response.

When the two arrived at the gymnasium, Mac noticed that a new door was present in the gym. Doc opened it and let Mac enter the apparently new room.

At a first glance, the room was just a smaller version of the main gymnasium. A boxing ring sat still at the center of the room, some training gadgets were placed around the room, and…

A brief sense of nostalgia made Mac blink. Standing on the boxing ring was one of the pink wireframes Master Hand had used for Mac's diagnostic test. More than the fact that the wireframe itself was familiar, old memories of the beginning of his boxing career warmed his heart.

"The Hands and I made a new deal!" Doc said with a grin. "And with that deal, you can practice with these wireframes. They're kind of like those holograms we used back at our old gym, right?"

Mac nodded. Though the design of the room was much cleaner and sophisticated than the gym Mac used for the entirety of his boxing career, everything felt nostalgic. He was not sure if the equipment could keep up with him, but facing something on the boxing ring could surely bring more of his confidence out in the Smash Brothers battles.

"How d'ya like it, Mac? This is some good stuff right here! Reminds me of old times."

The boxer saw himself training on an old boxing ring the longer he stared at the new ring. He saw himself punching and punching, slowly strengthening himself through trials and errors.

Such trials had become all but memories now. Mac had to agree with Doc. The place did remind him of old times… And it made the nostalgic boxer mutter,

"_Just like the good times..."_

"Come on, son! I'ma watch you pummel up that wireframe like you're trying to make an earthquake. Ah, but if you have anythin' else to check it out, I could wait! Knowing you, it's probably gonna be a quick match, anyway."

Wait? Make Doc _wait? _What kind of blasphemy did the good man speak of?

With his interest for the new training material piqued, Mac rolled into the ring, slowly taking off his casual clothes. Revealing his boxing attire, the lightweight boxing champion took out his boxing gloves. He tapped the gloves against each other after he put them on. With the gloves snugly enveloping his hands, the boxer looked over at one of the corners of the ring.

A red button labeled "Play" waited for Mac to press it. Without further ado, the boxer punched the button before walking straight up to the Fighting Wireframe.

The Fighting Wireframe cracked its knuckles before taunting Little Mac, making gestures that praised itself. For an artificially programmed entity, the wireframe seemed quite lively. Little Mac glared at the artificial fighter, his boxing gloves raised as he put himself into a state of alert. When the wireframe noticed Mac's prepared posture, it, too, prepared its own fighting stance.

Just like old times, a timer rang, signifying the beginning of the training battle.

"Wireframes don't use special attacks," Doc said at the sidelines. "If you want to train on counter-attacking the contestant's special abilities, you're gonna have to find something else for that boxing ring to replicate those kinds of stuff.

"And remember, those wireframes scale on the intelligence difficulty you scale them to, so make sure to adjust it every time, ya hear?"

Mac nodded swiftly, his eyes locked onto the eyeless wireframe. Glaring back at him with the Smash Brothers logo on its face, the wireframe proceeded to dash towards Mac by sliding up to him with its body lowered. Noticing its attack pose, Mac quickly dodged an uppercut made by the wireframe before punching it five times in the face.

"Ha!" Doc said to himself as he watched Mac back off from the wireframe.

_To think that this kid is the same kid who couldn't lift a twenty-pound dumbbell..._

Smirking to himself, Doc snorted as he put his hands on his hips, watching the boxer duck, slowly moving to the wireframe's side before attacking the instant moment it turned around.

Delivering a package of three hooks, Mac stepped away from the wireframe before going in to deal a single jab to the fighting machine's gut. He immediately backed away, causing the wire entity to back off in confusion. His gloves raised up to his face again, Mac approached the wireframe with slow steps. Contrary to the patient boxer, the wireframe leapt towards him frantically, leaving itself high up in the air.

A perfect chance.

Pulling his right fist behind him, Mac crouched, gritting his teeth and clenching his muscles. Right before the wireframe activated its attack, the lightweight boxing champion smashed his fist against its chin, successfully Star Punching it away. Much to Mac's surprise, the wireframe did not go that high in the air, but it did stumble across the ring before falling down.

"10!"

"9!"

"8!"

"7!"

"6!"

"5!"

"4-"

On the brighter side, the wireframe did pick itself up, though it did so in an abrupt way. Taking large steps towards Mac, the fighting entity threw a powerful elbow attack at the boxer. Little Mac had dealt with fighters who used things other than their boxing gloves. Thus, the attack did come across as a hugely unpredictable blow. Quickly utilizing his reflexes to his advantage, Mac lightly smacked aside the elbow, diverting its direction before punching the wireframe straight in the face.

As soon as the wireframe recovered from the attack, it wagged a finger at Little Mac before jumping in with a powerful kick.

Kicking in a boxing-styled battle looked funnier than Mac imagined it to be. He still decided to block the attack instead, for as soon as he repelled the kick with a powerful punch, the wireframe tried to back away, taken by surprise. Moving in to deliver a flurry of punches, Mac punched the fighting entity six times with jabs and hooks directed towards Smash Brothers emblem on its face.

The wireframe blocked the sixth punch before cracking its neck and knuckles. With a quick spin, the wireframe threw a roundhouse punch that headed straight for the side of Little Mac's cranium.

Mac kindly Star Punched it right before the entity even attacked, sending the wireframe straight towards the ring ropes and getting tangled up in it. For some reason, the memory of facing Aran Ryan briefly appeared before he heard Doc clapping.

"Well, what did I tell ya! That was way too fast, Mac baby!"

A voice from the boxing ring fittingly added in,

"**TKO!**"

* * *

><p>The boxer eventually left the boxing ring after thanking Doc Louis for convincing the Hands to make the entire room. He wore his casual clothes once more, his boxing attire hidden underneath them.<p>

Little Mac did not forget about the party Peach planned on holding, and since he had enough time to walk up to the woman's dorm, the boxer did not rush over to the place. His trusty little flip-phone helped him keep track of the time. Mac personally had no need for using things such as smartphones, as he rarely ever found himself using phones for anything other than sending messages or receiving calls from Doc Louis. "Smart" devices just made him feel dumber and lazier due to the things they provided, though that probably was not the case for those who enjoyed the technologically advanced gadgets. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that he was used to meeting people face-to-face.

Or perhaps he just enjoyed meeting people face-to-face because he boxed so much. After all, the digital era would never be able to completely capture the spiritual excitement of boxing. To move oneself and best everyone around them was easier said than done, after all.

Quietly walking up to Peach's dorm, the boxer wondered if the party's other members had arrived earlier than him. Raising a boxing glove, he was just about to knock on the door before noticing his green hand.

"…"

Mac hastily put his gloves away before knocking on the door.

Unlike the last time he knocked on Peach's door, Peach opened the door quite quickly. She looked a little… sleepy.

_Huh, _Mac thought. _Didn't think she'd look tired. Did the party begin way earlier than I thought it would?_

At the sight of Little Mac, the blonde woman perked up, greeting him with a chirpy "Hello!"

"…Did the party start?" Mac asked nervously.

Peach blinked before seeming to comprehend the almost rhetorical question Mac asked.

"It did not start yet, Mister Mac! Though, you may come in if you'd like."

A small nod made Peach open the door wider for the boxer. Walking into the dormitory, Mac felt overwhelmed by the sweet, peachy scent of the place. He was, however, more surprised by the fact that the dormitory felt normal, yet royal. While there were certainly some decorations that laced themselves across the walls, the living room was structured in a similar fashion to Mac's.

The more Mac stared at the living room, the more nervous Peach felt at his dumbstruck look. She quietly poked Mac, causing him to jolt back into reality.

"Where's everyone else?" Mac asked, curious as to why no one would want to stay at such a peaceful room instead of wandering about in the mansion's psychotically random hallways.

"Oh, um," the blonde Peach said, scratching the back of her head as she closed the door. "There's apparently a big battle between Sir Mario and Sir Sonic. They go a long way back, so I'm sure everyone wanted to watch it! I was surprised to hear that it would take two hours, too..."

The woman looked up at Mac, her eyes showing signs of disappointment, as she kindly suggested, "You can go watch the match with everyone else, if you desire to do so, Mister Mac."

The lightweight boxing champion raised an eyebrow, eying the light-pink room before turning to Peach. Apparently, the rivalry between the red plumber and the so-called "Sonic" was a well-known one. While a part of him did want to see how different their rivalry was from the rivalry he shared with Mr. Sandman, Mac had mentally prepared himself in making acquaintances in the mansion.

Also, he did not feel like ditching a generous offer made by a kind-hearted lady. Maybe everyone else was used to diverting their attentions towards random things they personally enjoyed; Mac had yet to feel that way.

Mac's face softened as he made a small grin, shrugging his slightly bulky shoulders.

"Nah," he told Peach as if watching the rival match instead of spending time with a friend of his was stupid.

At this, Peach's eyes brightened. No, they _sparkled._

"_Then let me prepare the tea!_" She said, scurrying past the lightweight boxing champion. Mac silently chuckled at the woman who brightened up in a matter of seconds.

"Is there any chocolate?" Mac asked out loud as she rushed into the kitchen.

"_Lots of them!_"

Mac knew he was in for a good party.


	13. An Ominous Premonition

In the end, only Mac and Peach had a party together.

Little Mac stretched his shoulders before going out for a jog. He had surprisingly skipped sleep due to the sheer power of chocolate, though the boxer did not plan on skipping sleep too much. The lightweight boxing champion did have a great time with one of his first friends from the new world he lived in. Peach introduced several games she enjoyed playing such as Battleship; it was a game that Mac did not think someone like Peach would have ever liked, but apparently, she enjoyed predicting other people's strategies.

Of course, Little Mac proved to be superior when it came to predictions, but once in a while, the princess would absolutely obliterate the boxer without losing any ships. S.S. Mac sunk in more than two humiliating ways, and its fellow ships fell in even more humorous ways. In return, Mac introduced Chinese checkers to her. Though he himself did not know much about mastering the game, he did remember playing it with Piston Hondo shortly after one of his Title Defense matches back at the WVBA.

Despite the fact that both Piston Hondo and Little Mac were great boxers, however, they both failed hard at playing Chinese checkers. Hondo himself admitted that he did not know what "they were smoking when they made the game," but nonetheless, the Japanese boxer and the American boxer found it amusing to play against each other with a completely foreign game neither of them played before. Mac remember how he ironically lost to Hondo more in Chinese checkers than at his boxing career.

The boxer jogged, running down the empty route he frequently went through.

* * *

><p>When the lightweight boxing champion returned to his dormitory, he immediately sat on his comfortable sofa, staring at the blank television screen.<p>

"…"

For the time being, the boxer felt nervous on when his next friendly match would pop up. According to some speculations made on the news, it was likely that he would face off against one of the more talented and traditional fighters. Mac himself heard no word on who he would be facing yet, so he remained in a state of continuous training.

His pink jumpsuit still on, Little Mac reached for a remote control, turning on the television as he got up from the sofa. He had no time to waste; his stomach cried for food to fill itself with. He did enjoy having a bit of noise in his life, however, so he left the television on.

With some random action flick turned on, the dark-haired man went to his nearby kitchen to fetch some good old pancakes. Giving full attention to his pancakes, the man prepared several recipes. Homemade pancakes tasted much better than pancake mixes. While he did not care too much on whatever he ate, when given the time to do so, Mac preferred to make his own food.

As he stirred his recipe to life, the boxer found himself enjoying the moment of peace. He soon made himself some pancakes, blissfully unaware of what was going on outside of his dormitory.

* * *

><p>…<p>

…

…

In his dark office, Master Hand floated in a state of pondering.

The match he had with Little Mac confused him. Something felt… off, so to speak. As everyone had witnessed, the hand used a sword in order to attack the boxer. Under most circumstances, Master Hand would not have minded using such a flashy and dangerous-looking ability in a Smash Brothers match, but something about the sword he used felt abnormal.

He experienced many things when he held onto the sword. The first emotion he felt was bloodlust.

Bloodlust. Master Hand was sure that not even Crazy Hand would deliberately seek out the utter destruction of others, despite his hyperactive partner's antics. Crazy Hand, the Destroyer, had little bloodlust, so why should he, the Creator, hold such emotions?

The second emotion he felt was fear.

Fear.

What did he fear…?

The Subspace Emissary put him in a state of fear. Thankfully, he barely lived to see the outcome of the dark time, but something about the Emissary planted a permanent sense of fear within him. Perhaps it had instilled something that he did not recognize experiencing before.

Fear.

Just what did he fear…?

Master Hand decided not to pay fear too much attention, as it was not the only emotion he felt in the battle with Mac.

The third and most prominent emotion he felt, after all, was hope.

_What can I possibly hope for while carrying a sword that could've hurt somebody? _Master Hand thought. He knew that he felt no greed to utterly pulverize Little Mac. But if he felt no greed and only bloodlust, what did that mean for the hand?

Something was wrong. Master Hand fully knew that.

Just as he continued to ponder on about his condition, Crazy Hand burst into the office, opening and closing the door within one second.

"EYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY," the left hand said as he twitched erratically. "So what did'ja call me for?"

"…I," Master Hand spoke with a serious tone, "have a problem."

"Wow, you figured that out just now-"

"No, Crazy Hand, not that kind of problem. I am in a dilemma. A dire situation, to put it simply."

At Master Hand's use of the word "dire," Crazy Hand twitched a little less, slowly floating towards his partner.

"Dire?"

"You see," Master Hand explained, "there is something I must ask of you regarding the… black dust… that appeared in our recent match with Little Mac."

Crazy Hand suddenly froze still. After remaining silent for a few seconds, the left hand suddenly told Master Hand,

"No, look, man, I could honestly explain about why I decided to hit you with that jar of-"

"No, Crazy Hand, I'm not talking about the jar-of-sh_**#%**_ incident," the right hand said with an exasperated tone. "I'm talking about the black dust that formed out of my body when I fought Little Mac."

Finally understanding what the right hand was talking about, Crazy Hand wagged a finger at his partner.

"Now, now, Master Hand; that was a cool trick you performed back then, but you don't have to rub it all over my face just because I got knocked out earlier than you did."

"_**I **_did not do use the sword."

Master Hand's statement seemed to slow down Crazy Hand's twitching even further. Now facing the right hand, the usually sporadic hand fell silent.

"…A bit more info on that bit would be pretty awesome, Master Hand."

Floating away from his office desk, Master Hand approached his partner as he explained,

"It felt as if something was controlling me. Some… abnormal force that I have never felt controlled my own actions. I did a test on myself to see if there was something inside my internal framework, but there were no signs of infections or anything that could possibly drive me mad."

The left hand remained silent, thinking hard for once.

"Perhaps," Crazy Hand cautiously asked, "something happened to you after the Emissary?"

"Impossible," Master Hand instinctively blurted out. "I couldn't sense Tabuu's presence after it ended. He should have-"

"What if there's something else?"

"…Something else?"

Crazy Hand thought about the idea he just invented before stating more clearly,

"What if there's something _beyond _the conspirator?"

"…Explain yourself," Master Hand said, interested in the conclusion Crazy Hand came to.

"Tabuu had a power that could defeat you," the left hand explained, twitching once-in-a-while during his explanation. "But Tabuu was no creator. He created nothing and only destroyed; a particular role I was unable to perform during the Emissary because he locked me up, I'll be honest. But the power to destroy is always created by something. He, on the other hand, used a power that obviously did not belong to him. Tabuu used something… a strange object, if I recall correctly, to defeat us.

"If Tabuu was no creator, and he did not create his own power, then there had to be something controlling that puppeteer, Master Hand."

At Crazy Hand's explanation, Master Hand seemed to think over the left hand's theory. It did make sense, considering the things he knew about the being known as Tabuu. But if there really was something controlling the conspirator…

…_Then there's no doubt that something would happen soon._

Master Hand turned and looked out of a window, a large coliseum underneath his place.

"What would they be after?" The right hand thought to himself as he watched over his own creations springing to life with joy. "I wonder if there's any reason for something to oppose us…"

The hands remained silent, for none of them knew the answer to the same question they pondered over.

Unbeknownst to them, several of the Smash Brothers tournaments' contestants had listened into the conversation.

* * *

><p>...<p>

...

...

New York; a state that ran through monopolies, industries, and controversies. It was yet another busy night for the Bronx, with many cars zooming through the streets to get business done.

With Little Mac gone, New York had cried out to meet the boxer who mysteriously vanished. New York's neighbors also roared, frustrated at how the moderately-sized boxer no longer showed himself to the public. Newspaper magazines wrote on the Bruiser from the Bronx's disappearance, some falling into ridiculous conclusions involving conspiracies around the reason why Mac truly quit boxing.

In the end, everyone thought of Mac's disappearance to be a strange and mystical incident. But like many other incidents, the event eventually became a simple part of history; a history that involved a small man who showed the world how to win through wit and effort.

But one man never accepted Mac's disappearance.

For when Little Mac quit boxing, one of Mac's many opponents failed to beat him in their many rematches. Unlike many opponents who were somewhat glad of Mac's retirement, however, this man grew enraged when he heard news of the lightweight boxing champion's resignation.

"_Where is he…?!_" A tall, hulking figure in the night of northeast North America seethed. "_Why can't I find him?!_"

He met his first loss in the World Video Boxing Association after encountering Little Mac. Thirty one well-earned victories was the end of his winning streak when a tiny, dark-haired munchkin put him to sleep on the ring. _He _was the one supposed to put his opponents to sleep, and yet Mac sent him to Dreamland far too quickly and swiftly for him to admit defeat.

The dark-skinned man with a lightning-shaped buzzcut tore apart the poster that publicly announced Mac's disappearance. Under a dim street lamp, the man remembered how the crowd shifted from his side to the munchkin's side. He remembered how the tiny pugilist ended the title bout with three swift punches, and how he ended the inevitable rematch with the same method; over, and over, and over and over and over again.

"_**Grrr…!**_"

The sight of Little Mac smiling at his victory enraged him. The sight of the midget that took away his spotlight as the memorable champion of the WVBA infuriated his very soul. And when Little Mac raised his arms to answer the crowd's hearty cheers for his entrance, the man only grew more and more agitated towards the little punching machine.

He took the belt.

He took the title.

And he took his name.

"**GRAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!**"

With a mighty punch, the man began to pound the wall of a brick building with his fists. He punched and punched, unable to let out his rage with satisfaction. Rage coursed his veins, his mind, his very body and heart. Behind his eyes were the eyes of one who met humiliation and absolute anger.

How dare he take his name as _Champion_ away from him! How dare Little Mac ever beat him!

"**AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!** _**RAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!**_"

And after several more mighty punches, the building had fallen apart. A debris of destroyed bricks and shattered windows lay under his feet.

Yet, the strength and speed of a **truck** lost against the strength and speed of a _**munchkin**_…

He needed to show Little Mac his anger. If he just beat Mac, then his name would change once more. But with Little Mac disappearing so suddenly, the large and powerful boxer found nothing but an eternal anger that strived on. And despite being the new champion a little after news of Mac's disappearance had gone by, the crowd did not acknowledge him to be the champion of the century.

They were lost in reminiscing Mac's achievements, despite how hard the man pushed to show them who was better.

How dare he…! _How dare he…!_

"_I'LL FIND YOU!_ I'LL **FIND YOU,** AND I'LL GIVE YOU A **NIGHTMARE** TO REMEMBER FOR **THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!** _**YOU HEAR ME, LITTLE MAC?!**_ _**AAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!**_"

Standing under a serene moon with a raging heart, the man stood before the five-story building he had just destroyed in a few punches. He would no longer wait for Mac to face him.

_He _would find Mac, no matter how hard it was to find him.

**Mr. Sandman roared as the ominous fate of the Smash Brothers remained unknown.**


End file.
